Google launches Google Checkout payment system

Filed under: Business, Web services, Google

Google launches Google Checkout payment system

by Jordan Running Jun 29th 2006

After literally years of rumors, Google has launched its much-talked-about e-commerce payment system, Google Checkout. The idea is simple: Google holds on to your credit card and shipping information, and when you find something you want to buy at a Google Checkout affiliate, completing the transaction is a one-step process. "The goal here is to make it be one nanosecond from the time the customer decides to buy to the time the transaction is complete and the product is on the way," says Google CEO Eric Schmidt in the New York Times' coverage of the launch. Google has a trick up its sleeve for luring in merchants, too: If you're a merchant who buys advertising from Google ~~AdSense~~ AdWords, Google will waive some or all of your Checkout transaction fees. But for those who don't enroll in AdSense, the fees are still comparatively low: 20 cents per transaction plus two percent of the purchase price.

Tags: checkout, gbuy, google, googlecheckout, payments, paypal, wallet

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

wrecker said 5:44PM on 6-29-2006

Its not AdSense -> Adsense is for Webmasters. Google checkout has incentives for merchants who spend on advertising with AdWords.

Adam Ballai said 6:51PM on 6-29-2006

The API was developed very in depth with tax, shipping, and item storage. I believe this is an excellent way to do informational analytics on many levels of the consumer.

Gil said 8:41AM on 6-30-2006

http://checkout.google.com/support/sell/bin/answer.py?answer=42871

Just when I thought this was going to be different from PayPal's policy. Google is loosing a lot of bussiness like this

Hitesh Sawlani said 9:45AM on 6-30-2006

2% of the item? That is how much banks charge in Spain for processing credit cards.

SO

imagine the cost of an item (to the seller) is 16euros, he puts a 25% markup...

So he sells at 20euros
by selling once:
40cents goes to the bank for using a credit card(2%)
40cents goes to google (2%)
20cents goes to google (always...)
--------
1euro goes away

Profit goes from 4euros to 3euros... that is too much

Jordan Running said 12:42PM on 6-30-2006

Hitesh: Google does the credit card processing--the merchant does not pay any additional money to the bank, and as I wrote above, its fees are fairly competetive.

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters