After dealing with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s "Checkout" online payment and transaction service recently, I came away surprised but not really that impressed. The largest reason? It's probably in the name -- "Checkout." That's all Google Checkout allows a customer to do. Is the service comparable to eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY)'s PayPal's "online bank" look and feel? Not even close.Now, this is not exactly new news -- I realize that. But the comparisons (for about a year now) that have pitted Google Checkout against eBay's PayPal have made mincemeat out of what does not exist -- true competition. PayPal is situated like an online bank. In fact, it operates and lets customers perform bank-like transactions. Sending money, receiving money, using several credit cards for online purchases, printing shipping information to sellers and quite a bit more.
Google Checkout allows paying for online purchases pretty easily, but that's just about where I see similarities end. I am pretty sure Google Checkout will evolve to take on PayPal, but right now it's not even in the same league: Checkout's international limitations (U.S. and UK currencies only) and PayPal's "bank-like" feel along with a whole gamut of customer-friendly options puts PayPal way (way) ahead of Checkout. Google's service needs to -- has to -- do better.
I'm anxious to see what Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)'s recently unveiled Flexible Payments Service will bring to the table. I hope it's more than Google's year-old effort.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-14-2007 @ 10:36AM
Jeff Fleming said...
Your comments: Another point that should be considered before investing in
eBay...Recently eBay has taken a position to suspend sellers without
recourse. I was a member & a stockholder of eBay until I was
suspended from listing my wares for a period of 2 weeks. When I tried
to get an answer from eBay as to why I was suspended my request fell
on deaf ears. My record since 1998 was at 99.5% approval with over
18,800 positive feedbacks left for me. Only 22 negative feedbacks
left for me in that same period of time. My average sale was between
7.00 & 8.00 per transaction. You can do math... Because of my
suspension & eBay's refusal to reply to my emails questioning their
action I closed my eBay selling account & my PayPal account. Goodbye
Meg! Your greed & lack of customer service & customer appreciation
amazes me. I can only hope that Google or Yahoo is around the corner
to offer an auction site that is more user friendly. Last but not
least...Lets not forget eBays lack of addressing the fraud & identity
theft that runs rampant on ebay!Amen
9-06-2007 @ 2:39AM
David Kim said...
Yes, for now. It's also the reason why I use PayPal, for now. BUT, PayPal's customer support sucks soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad (while I'm at it, eBay's the same), it's just going to be a matter of time before I and many other online merchants switch to Google or Amazon solutions.