Can’t we all just get along?! Demystifying the PayPal vs. Google Checkout Hype

Prior to launch there was much speculation that GBuy (now known to be Google Checkout) would be a PayPal competitor.

Now that it’s released its time to clear the air and point out vigorously that not only do these two systems not compete, but it would be really interesting if they were to work together. Here are some points:

• Google Checkout is not a new payment system. Google Checkout (as the name says) is a checkout system+wallet+credit card gateway+purchase manager
• Google Checkout is no different from a payments perspective than something like Authorize.net or Cybersource
• Google Checkout has no stored balance system
• Google Checkout is not for person to person transactions

All that said, as an avid PayPal user, I think it would be really cool if I could store my PayPal details with Google Checkout and have that available as a payment option within my Google Checkout. Then I could use my PayPal balance or checking account to pay with things vs. just credit card. This would be good for:

• The 100m consumers that use PayPal as a payment system
• PayPal would get into more checkouts
• Google  would have a broader offering

Can’t we all just get along?

Comments

[Sam]

Off-topic, sorry.

Scott, I just saw the post on AuctionBytes about the new CA Labs offerings. They look like very useful tools, and as a subscriber I'm glad to see that the CA services continue to broaden and improve.