What Does Google Have in its Wallet? - Google’s Possible Intentions
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I’ve already mentioned John Battelle’s Searchblog. He actually goes into a bit of detail about the video playback feature. It’s an outgrowth of Google’s video search and upload function. Google began accepting videos from pretty much anyone back in April –- right around the time it registered Google Payment Corp. Apparently, the content could be uploaded to Google with either a “free” or “payment” option. In this way, Google could become a host of sorts for those who can’t host and stream their own video, but still want to reach lots of people with it. Handling the payment part of it as well could be a real boon to independent filmmakers and others who don’t want to deal with those details. This move would not put it into direct competition with PayPal.
This idea could easily be expanded beyond video. While the only company that seems to have had much success with having customers pay for online content is the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, Google Wallet could change that. The service could be set up to handle small payments from those who want to view copyrighted material online to publishers of such material. Such a service, handling enough transactions, might even turn a profit on micropayments. Indeed, Google Wallet might, in general, make it easier for Google to sell things through its search engine.
A number of analysts think that Google will be taking a different route with the service, though not one that excludes the possibility of doing pay-for-video. Google already has a shopping comparison service, appropriately named Froogle. Tying Google Wallet in with Froogle seems like a natural move, which again would not compete directly with PayPal.
Yet another way that Google could enter the online payments business without competing directly with PayPal is by accepting the kinds of transactions that PayPal won’t touch. On eBay, these are considered “high-risk” transactions, and usually involve items labeled “adult entertainment.” It’s an open question whether Google would want to get into that end of the business.
If the folks at Google do not wish to compete directly with PayPal, you can hardly blame them. It’s true that the company needs to diversify (more on that in a moment). But PayPal earned its spot as the first company that comes to most people’s minds when they think of online payment companies...in somewhat the same way as Google earned a similar spot for its search engine.
Next: PayPal’s Turf >>
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