Is Google targeting eBay and PayPal? That is exactly what people thought when news of Google’s payment service was leaked. In today’s Murdok, we feature a couple of stories that take a look at the possible uses and implications for Google’s upcoming e-wallet.
Editor’s Note: I’m sure you’ve heard of the upcoming Google Wallet by now. What are some uses you can see it going toward? Do you think Google will take Sugar’s advice and embrace the adult industry? Discuss at WebProWorld.
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 risqu 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. Of course, Google does not allow adult content on AdWords campaigns, nor do they 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?
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest search news.
