According to an announcement from eBay, customers of this website will not be able to use the recently launched Checkout service from Google for buying and selling goods on eBay.
The Google Checkout service, along with several other payment services such as Netpay.com, Qchex.com, ePassporte.com, and BillPay.ie, has been placed on eBay’s restricted list. Google’s payment service allows online shoppers to store their credit card numbers and address information in Checkout, so they don’t have to re-enter this information every time they make a purchase from different websites.
When announcing the Checkout service at the end of June, Google emphasized that they had no intention of competing with PayPal, the online payment service owned by eBay.
Currently, eBay has not specified the reasons for banning Google Checkout, but an analyst stated that it may be due to the potential competition with PayPal. Jaap Favier, an official from Forrester Research, said: “I think the most reasonable answer here is whether eBay is afraid of competition. Google Checkout could be a significant threat to PayPal.”
Although Google Checkout is not currently in direct competition with PayPal, this could very well change in the future. Favier believes that in the long run, Google is becoming increasingly active in the e-commerce space, and it is likely that Google will enhance Checkout to include more features, making it more similar to PayPal.
On eBay’s website describing accepted payment policies, it states that when a new payment service emerges, eBay will evaluate it to determine its suitability. According to the website, some payment services may not be accepted by eBay even if they are suitable for customers in other circumstances.
