SLOWLY BUT SURELY
Google officially announced that it's beginning to test payment services for it's Google Base offering. Back in November, I'd postulated that Google Base was the beginning of a really big deal not only for the company, but mainstream users. The announcement above is an important step in that direction.
Bill Burnham has some good observations on the announcement as well, here and here. His second post about Google potentially being the merchant of record in Google Base is a subtle, but potentially important distinction between Google and eBay's ecommerce offerings.
"EBay has done everything they can not to become the merchant of record for transactions on its site. Anyone who has purchased something on EBay knows that you settle up with the merchant directly, usually via Pay-Pal, and not through EBay. In contrast, when you buy something via Google Base, you will pay Google who in turn will pay the merchant."
Since Google Base is still in beta, and everything is still in a test mode, it's tough to hang one's hat on this distinction, since it may change substantially.
But given Google's own words describing it's accomplishments in payment services to date, potentially support an intention to continue being the merchant of record:
"If you take a look at the history of Google's advertising programs and online services, one thing you notice is that online billing and payments have been a core part of our offerings for some time.
To run our ad programs, Google receives payments every day from advertisers, and then pays out a portion of those funds to advertising partners. Over the past four years, Google has billed advertisers in 65 countries more than $11.2 billion in 48 currencies, and made payments to advertising partners of more than $3.9 billion."
For more of a run-down on Google Base, check out this post by Inside Adwords.
Comments