Is Google targeting eBay and PayPal? That is exactly what people thought when news of Google's payment service was leaked. In today's WebProNews, we feature a couple of stories that take a look at the possible uses and implications for Google's upcoming e-wallet.

In an open letter to Google written by Sam Sugar, and appearing on his SugarBank blog, suggests the Google Wallet would be a perfect tool for adult-related Internet purchases. He provides a number of sound reasons why this would be a good move for Google, financially and otherwise.

When it was first revealed, many thought the Google Wallet would be a direct challenge to eBay's PayPal service, this line of thinking was categorically denied by Google CEO. Yesterday, Charlene Li discussed how G-Money could be used to consolidate micropayments, which constitutes a viable option for the Google Wallet, especially when you consider Charlene's detailed scenario.

A second, more risqué use can be found in Sam’s open letter to Google, which asked the search engine to consider embracing adult content-related purchase transactions. The rest of this article looks at Sam’s suggestion:

Because eBay does not allow PayPal to be used for pornographic transactions, adult-related web businesses are forced to use expensive merchant services that can leave many, buyers and sellers alike, unsatisfied. For instance, many merchant companies are unequipped to handle these “high risk” transactions. They can also carry expensive merchant charges.

Because of these difficulties, Brad feels Google's payment program would be perfect for the Internet adult industry.

Sugar’s rationale comes from the support he feels Google already provides adult businesses. According to the letter:

Google is porn friendly. You provide tools to allow people to view adult images in their search results, there appear to be no restrictions on the type of products that can be found via Froogle, and a great number of the blogs you host (at blogger.com) contain adult material.

This is quite true. Google users are responsible for filtering adult-related content out of the query results. They do not, however, allow adult sites to display AdSense ads, but this seems to be out of respect for their big-name advertisers who don't want to be associated with such content.

Sugar's open letter also contains a number of conclusions demonstrating why embracing the adult industry with their new payment system would benefit Google financially and otherwise:

Conclusion: Google is already in the porn business and it would be damaging to withdraw.

Conclusion: PayPal have banned ‘high-risk' transactions due to a lack of technical expertise. Google can satisfy a waiting billion dollar market by catering to adult transactions.

Conclusion: Though handling adult transactions is complicated, publishing adult material - which Google already does in it's cache and via blogger.com - is more so.

Conclusion: Taking adult transactions will give Google the ‘adult edge' that VHS used to overtake Betamax. PayPal's neglect is Google's opportunity.

Conclusion: Adult transactions are already being managed profitably and efficiently by a number of small companies. Google has the resources and the brainpower to handle adult transactions safely if it chooses to.

While it remains to be seen whether or not Google will heed Sugar's advice, the fact remains he does provide legitimate and sound reasoning to his suggestion. Monetarily speaking, if Google was to embrace the adult industry with its Google Wallet, the financial rewards would probably be quite extensive.

When you consider both Charlene’s and Sam’s approach, however different they are, you see that they are opportunities where Google can put their upcoming payment system to effective use. While one of these approaches may seem controversial, it would be quite a financial windfall, especially when you consider the amount of revenue generated by adult-related businesses.

The question remains nonetheless: would Google risk taking such a PR beating by embracing the pornography industry in order to pad their coffers some more?

__________________
Former WebProWorld Admin
IntentionalFoul.com

Lets not forget about how Ebay and Paypal both profit from being unscrupulous.

Remember the class action suit against Paypal? Go to paypalsucks.com for more info. Roughly half of all paypal revenues comes from freezing users accounts for 6 months and collecting interest on that money. Their notorious Terms of Service (TOS) states you could be subject to an account freeze for no reason! Trust me its not fun to have someone lock up a few grand of your hard earned money for 6 months.

Ever since Ebay aquired Paypal, they too have been changing the way they do business. They have been also freezing peoples accounts and permanently banning people from using Ebay.

I cant wait until Google puts both of these dirt bag companies out of business.

Nice article, but this isn't quite correct:

"Google does not allow adult content on AdWords campaigns"

We use AdWords for just that.

Rob.

__________________
----------------------------
Robert Skelton

SearchEngineZ
http://searchenginez.com
-----------------------------

I think there are plenty of opportunities for Google, or is that G-Money, without having to get into the ring and slug it out with the likes of PayPal. Top of the list - music download micro payments (G-Tracks anyone?) Then ringtones, wallpapers, SMS, etc etc.

I think there are plenty of opportunities for Google Wallet, - or is that 'G-Money' - without having to get into the ring and slug it out with the likes of PayPal. Top of the list - music download micro payments (G-Tracks anyone?) Then ringtones, wallpapers, SMS, etc etc.

What about the whole Google press deal? Or combining Froogle with a payment service. There are other options that haven't yet been discussed. I'm sure G has some big plans down the road, and the rest of us can just sit and eagerly await their plans to make all of us more money by making themselves the destination place to buy stuff.

Brian.

__________________
ToolBarn.com, an Internet Retailer Top 500 and Inc. 500 Company | Tool Parts | Pet Supplies

yeah, that was my bad. i corrected the copy to reflect adsense instead of adwords.

__________________
Former WebProWorld Admin
IntentionalFoul.com

I think the Google name has been historically adult industry friendly while at the same time family friendly, moreso than other SE's. Google does carry a good branding quality, which generates a trustworthy characteristics from a wide perspective, so I think there's going to be a great deal of success with "G-Money" (I like that phrase too).

Although, adding a financial service does seem to indicate a shift from their original objective, which was organizing the world's information.

__________________
Domain Name Registration and Website Hosting :: DesignerTrade

nah, it just gives people the chance to buy all of the information they've organized. ;)

__________________
Former WebProWorld Admin
IntentionalFoul.com

"I'm feeling lucky... here's my credit card number." The more you pay, the more relevant your SERPs become. I like it! Ok, not really. It's a funny thought, though.

Brian.

__________________
ToolBarn.com, an Internet Retailer Top 500 and Inc. 500 Company | Tool Parts | Pet Supplies

If Google ever does do this, I can bet you they will overcharge for it, maybe not in the beginning, but eventually they will. Google is starting to become like any other Stock Holding Biz: Doing whatever it takes to make their shareholders happy and to not lose money while doing it.

Just have that in your ears for a while and we'll see how it all turns out.

Just my 2 cents.

Yes, I agree things would be much easier if a popular service like "G-Money" would take on the payment processing for adult related sites but it's not entirely up to Google.

See the way it works today is if you want to setup a merchant account, you have to tell Visa what you plan to sell. Online merchants already pay a higher rate because you never actually see the plastic, couple that with being classified as a "high-risk" merchant because you are selling a product or service that historically receives a lot of charge backs (IMHO because married men or kids get caught by the lady of the house and never fess up to actually using the card to buy XXX material so the lady of the house call Visa to get her money back).

So in order for this nifty idea to take off Visa would have to relax their "high risk" merchant fee of upwards of $750 initially and $350 per year PER MERCHANT.

I get the feeling many of you think PayPal & Ebay are part of this religious right and don't want to contribute to the XXX material on the Web but that just not the entire story. The bottom line is there is A LOT of risk with this type of activity and PayPal would rather not deal with all of the BS that comes along with it.

"G-Money" is, simply put, another revenue stream for Google. Why not hook up Froogle and G-Money and allow people one stop shopping? It's smart considering we don't know the fallout (and are just discovering the problems with) of the click fraud controversy that I am POSITIVE will pick up more steam by the end of this year.

__________________
Internet Genius!
Merketing-Helpers.com - Discover the secrets of the top Internet marketing experts.
IT Solutions That Work! - Philadelphia IT Consultants

Yes, I agree things would be much easier if a popular service like "G-Money" would take on the payment processing for adult related sites but it's not entirely up to Google.

See the way it works today is if you want to setup a merchant account, you have to tell Visa what you plan to sell. Online merchants already pay a higher rate because you never actually see the plastic, couple that with being classified as a "high-risk" merchant because you are selling a product or service that historically receives a lot of charge backs (IMHO because married men or kids get caught by the lady of the house and never fess up to actually using the card to buy XXX material so the lady of the house call Visa to get her money back).

So in order for this nifty idea to take off Visa would have to relax their "high risk" merchant fee of upwards of $750 initially and $350 per year PER MERCHANT.

I get the feeling many of you think PayPal & Ebay are part of this religious right and don't want to contribute to the XXX material on the Web but that just not the entire story. The bottom line is there is A LOT of risk with this type of activity and PayPal would rather not deal with all of the BS that comes along with it.

"G-Money" is, simply put, another revenue stream for Google. Why not hook up Froogle and G-Money and allow people one stop shopping? It's smart considering we don't know the fallout (and are just discovering the problems with) of the click fraud controversy that I am POSITIVE will pick up more steam by the end of this year.

__________________
Internet Genius!
Merketing-Helpers.com - Discover the secrets of the top Internet marketing experts.
IT Solutions That Work! - Philadelphia IT Consultants

Totally agreed. Just another one of those "why not" questions.

The thing that the major credit card companies need to do is that when you want to do a charge back, you have to have proof (ie: credit card statement) that you never purchased it. Sure enough, they need to just start doing it for all of their products. I mean if I ever created a credit card company, why in the world would you give the consumer their money back without proof, that just defeats the whole purpose. So, "why not"?

Google needs to take a little more risks and just go with it. It's not like it's going to hurt them. Even if it did, they would be a major contribution into the eMarketing world and not just a search engine anymore. Just imagine if Google starting selling Internet Service, now that would be something I would buy.