Amazon Rumored To Launch PayPal Competitor
As you might know, Amazon introduced last year its Amazon Payments shop-till-your-cell-phone-drops system for use at Amazon.com and partner sites.
Still, the idea of broadening the Amazon Payments business greatly piques the interest of analysts. One more party to voice enthusiasm for a larger payment network to span a vast supply of Internet commerce Web sites is Derek Brown of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald.
As quoted by Eric Savitz of Barrons, Brown seemed this week to increase the potency of that lingering flame, saying that an “Amazon Payments” system a la PayPal in its potentially extensive reach, is perhaps a very worthwhile avenue to venture down, due to its intimate and very refined knowledge of online retail in all its limits and possibilities. Brown argues Amazon had “long ago demonstrated that it understands (perhaps better than any company) the needs/wants of online retailers.”
PayPal is no doubt the reigning leader of payment transfer services born on the Web. Its reach is quite extraordinary, and it continues to reap the financial benefits in kind.
So much so that its success drew Google into the fold in 2006 with its own competitor, dubbed Checkout, beginning with the US market. amazonpayBut while Google Checkout has made a name for itself, it has not achieved ubiquity as eBay’s property managed to do.
This naturally leaves open a fairly great opportunity for Amazon. With its lasting mark made on the online retail market, Amazon is most certainly positioned to offer PayPal a significant challenge.
Photo by Amazon.
Winning Startups on June 23rd, 2008 2:46 pm
Interesting. It’s amazing there are so few competitors to Paypal out there. It’s about time someone stepped up to the plate.
Chad on June 23rd, 2008 3:22 pm
It will be interesting to see Amazon’s approach. PayPal may have a strong grasp on the market share but working for a payment processing company myself, I feel like I am constantly reading PayPal horror stories. A business, especially a small one, would only be doing themselves a disservice by not researching other alternatives instead of taking the “easy” route and going with the biggest (yet not governed by banking regulations) option. I left a link to a list of competitors — I wonder will Amazon would try to fit in.
cassy on June 24th, 2008 7:45 pm
I think this is a big challenge to Amazon..
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