Ebay has decided to ban Google Checkout from it auctions (Ebay TOS). Merchants will not be allowed to offer it as a payment service in their auctions.Â
Why is Ebay banning any payment services? I understand if they “recommend against” a service if they feel it is unreliabled but they shouldn’t be banning anyone. It shouldn’t be up to them, it should be up to the seller and purchaser to determine which methods are most convienient and trustworthy to them. Â
And if they allow other credit card processors in their TOS, why not Google Checkout? I’d trust Google Checkout before any fly by night online store’s website / shopping cart. Jeremy and many others out there say they’re trying to keep their stronghold on the e-wallet / auction payment market with Paypal
I’d be surprised if either something doesn’t give or a lawsuit isn’t filed in the very near future on this one. eBay obviously wants to take advantage of the network effect as much as the can, but this may have crossed the line.
Jeremy’s Blog :: eBay Bans Sellers from Using Google Checkout
I don’t think this is important because Google is banned, but rather because anyone is banned. All of the non-paypal eWallets could probably join forces on some type of anti-trust suit here. But I dont think Google will care. Auctions are not the market Google is after.
Google is looking to offer value add to their AdSense / AdWords program. I don’t think Checkout is meant to earn money on its own for Google, because they offer it cheaply and in some cases *free*. Checkout is there to increase ad clicks, ad sales, and click-to-sale conversions. And as an added benefit they get a payment method for Google Video, Google VoIP and any other services they plan to offer in the future.
The cross over between Checkout and Paypal is tangential at best. They both offer merchant account services. And that market is already flooded, their won’t be much competition between the 2 services there. Google is going after a small part of that market, AdWords advertisers, just as Paypal is after the merchants in eBay auctions.Â
So while Google probably doesn’t have much of a reason to sue eBay over this, others might. How long have these others been banned? Have they attempted to fight the ban? Has it hurt them at all? How many of them are after the auction market? I know Neteller for examply focuses on gaming sites (Casino’s, sportsbook, poker). The same with ePassporte.com.
What about the rest of these?Â
“AlertPay.com, anypay.com, AuctionChex.com, AuctionPix.com,
BillPay.ie, ecount.com, cardserviceinternational.com, CCAvenue, ecount,
e-gold, eHotPay.com, ePassporte.com, EuroGiro, FastCash.com, Google
Checkout, gcash, GearPay, Goldmoney.com, graphcard.com, greenzap.com,
ikobo.com, Liberty Dollars, Moneygram.com, neteller.com, Netpay.com,
Nochex.com, paychest.com, payingfast.com, paypay, Postepay, Qchex.com,
rupay.com, scripophily.com, sendmoneyorder.com, stamps, Stormpay,
wmtransfer.com, xcoin.com”
technorati tags:ewallet, google, ebay, checkout, paypal, payments, auctions, merchant, accounts, credit, card, processors
Blogged with Flock