eBay bans Google Checkout

I find this rather interesting and thought I give you some insight on this. Google Checkout is a new Google service similar to eBay owned PayPal that you can use to transfer money to another person on the Internet without using your bank account to do so directly.  It enables direct money transfers between Internet users without having to think about credit card numbers, processing days or entering the right account information to do so in first place.

Checkout went live a few days ago and eBay was quick and aggressive about it by not allowing buyers and sellers on its properties to use Google Checkout as a payment processing method.

Ebay changed its Safe Policy this week adding Google Checkout to its list of online payment methods not permitted on eBay. Take a look at their updated policy to see for yourself that Google Checkout is among the payment services that are not accepted by eBay.

My first thought was that eBay was trying to prevent the growth of Google Checkout right from the start and to avoid any competition for the company owned PayPal payment processing service. This is certainly an explanation that makes sense, but there may be another that provided them with justification to ban Google Checkout on eBay.

Ebay uses several factors to determine whether a payment service will be permitted. One of those factors is "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)"

Google has of course such a track record with Adwords and Google Video but of course not with Google Payment. This could mean that they will evaluate Google Checkout again at a later date and probably add it to their list of accepted payments services then.

I think that eBay should leave it to its users how they finish the transaction. It's none of eBay's business in my opinion to interfere. What do you think?

Update: Google Checkout is not permitted on eBay even after all those years. The most recent policy overview on eBay allows the following payment systems: PayPal, ProPay, Skrill,Credit card or debit card processed through the seller's Internet merchant account,Payment upon pickup,Bill Me Later.

The following payment methods are only permitted in select categories: Bank-to-bank transfers (also known as bank wire transfers and bank cash transfers), Checks, Money orders, Online payment services: Allpay.net, CertaPay, hyperwallet.com, Fiserv, Nochex.com, XOOM.

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