eBay Inc. Punches Google’s Nose! Bans Google Checkout
eBay (EBAY) Inc. had enough of playing the nice guy and double guessing Google’s infamous Don’t Be Evil motto. Having watched Google (GOOG) – one of its key advertisers — build competitive products in (1) Google Base and (2) Google Checkout, eBay decided it was time to give some pain back — right in Google’s nose.
Google Checkout, Google’s recently launched online payment service is banned by eBay. On its Accepted payment policy page, Google Checkout lists as a Payment Service Not Permitted on eBay:
From time to time, as new payment services arise, eBay will evaluate them to determine whether they are appropriate for the marketplace. Payment services that are not permitted on eBay may, in fact, be outstanding services for consumers in other contexts. eBay’s evaluation relates only to whether a particular service is appropriate for the eBay marketplace. eBay will consider the following factors, among others, in making its determination:
Whether the payment model offers substantial financial, privacy and anti-fraud protection for buyers and sellers
Whether the payment model raises the potential for confusion among eBay users, or involves incentives that may present fraud concerns
Whether the payment model involves precious metals, or other non-cash (points, miles, minutes, coupons, discounts) as consideration
Whether the payment service has a substantial historical track record of providing safe and reliable financial and/or banking related services (new services without such a track record generally cannot be promoted on eBay)
The identity, background and other business interests of the payment service sponsor
The license/regulatory status of the payment provider in the countries where it provides payment services
…Some Examples
Payment Services permitted on eBay: Allpay.net, Bidpay, Canadian Tire Money, cash2india, CertaPay, Checkfree.com, hyperwallet,com, Moneybookers.com, Ozpay.biz, Payko.com, Paymate.com.au, Propay.com, XOOM
Payment Services not permitted on eBay: 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…
I can well understand eBay’s action. Overall eBay has a defined policy which states that a non-permitted payment service may infact be a good service — yet it must meet eBay’s policy. Then the subjective part of decision making comes (Btw read the full story of Google’s claim that Google’s Search Results are "subjective" not "objective" as decided by Page Rank algo on John Battelles blog.). How long could eBay take Google’s competitive threats lying low as a good boy? It had already signalled its intent to hit back by announcing a strategic partnership with Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) last month.
The "animosity and mistrust by other Tech firms" of my prediction of response by other Internet players to Google’s "we do it all" strategy is turning out to be true. In my post Why eBay Inc.is worried about Google I had said:
The long term result of this "we do everything" un-strategy will be the same results that Microsoft (MSFT) is not very unfamiliar with today:
- animosity and mistrust by other Tech firms
- slow but sure exit of talented and sensitive employees
- diassociation of the term "innovative" with the company
- stagnation of stock prices
Also of Interest: Flaws in Google’s Strategy
Tags: 196, 81POSTED IN: Google, Google Checkout, PayPal, Yahoo
1 opinion for eBay Inc. Punches Google’s Nose! Bans Google Checkout
Erdbeere
Jul 23, 2006 at 10:17 pm
I checked out “Google-checkout”.
The overall process seems to be very easy but exactly that makes this solution very vulnerable. During checkout there was no security question to make sure that I’m indeed the owner of the Google account or the associated Credit Cards in that account. Of course I used my username and password but because there are so many Google sites, using the same username and password, it is very easy to loose your login information on a hijacking page as you might not check the url for Ad-Words or Gmail every time you log on as those services never had the possibility to shop with your Credit Card.
Now because you have one account and login information for all it is quite possible that hackers will try to get your login information from any Google service out there! Even worth is the fact that the hacker can change the password without any problem. The owner of the account might not even get any information about the password change as the e-mail is sent to the according and hijacked Gmail account.
Because of this HUGE security risk I would not recommend using Google checkout!
Please checkout the http://www.thebilliondollarpatent.com as s-registration solution that Google should have implemented in their service to make it solid and secure. This solution is requiring a third credential called TAN to make sure that ONLY the owner of that account is able to shop online even in case the account is hijacked.
I hope that everybody is aware of the security issue with Google checkout and will inform Google of a better solution!
Thanks and be safe;-)))!!
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