IN ASSOCIATION WITH

 Click here for info on our Data Centre 

Google readies 'PayPal-killer'
13-06-2006
by The Register

Google is all set to launch its online payment system, or 'PayPal-killer' for the over-dramatic.

According to a note from investment bank RBC Capital Markets the search giant will let people selling goods through Google Base use the system to pay for purchases. GBuy is due to launch on 28 June and will initially be limited to Base users.

This will be extended to "Google-approved merchants" later. The service will be free at first but Google wants to charge between 1.5 percent and 2 percent of sale price. The service will be targeted at small merchants who are unable, or unwilling, to accept credit card payments.

The "Trusted GBuy Merchant" tag alongside search results may have a beneficial impact on click-through rates. Although e-commerce is growing fast -- STG18 billion last year or 2.5 percent of household spending -- there is still a perception that security fears are holding back some purchases.

Google's brand may help allay these fears. If the search giant was to track purchases too then it would have valuable information to feed back into its search engine.

The announcement, or rather lack of announcement -- Google has not confirmed the launch -- is widely seen as bad news for market-leading payment system PayPal, owned by eBay.

The Register and its contents are copyright 2006 Situation Publishing. Reprinted with permission.