Rafe Needleman's Off-the-Wall Analysis of Google Checkout
You've probably heard by now that Google has announced Google Checkout. Lots of articles have been published about how it is expected to work.
Rumors initially indicated that Google Checkout would be a direct competitor to Paypal. It's clearly not that, at least not yet. Instead it appears to be another implementation of an ecommerce wallet, similar to initiatives attempted by Microsoft, Yahoo! and others over recent years.
There was one analysis of the Google Checkout announcement that stood out for me as a bizarre conclusion on the part of the writer. That was Rafe Needleman's article on the CNET Web 2.0 Blog. Rafe said that Google Checkout is "Amazon's worst nightmare", as if the convenience of saving your credit card billing information and using Amazon 1-Click was a big factor in many of the sales that Amazon.com makes on a daily basis.
If you're still following this logic, Rafe thinks that Google Checkout will cut into Amazon's sales because people who start using Google Checkout will be able to have a 1-Click-like experience with many other ecommerce vendors that Google signs up to participate in their service.
Kathleen and I buy a lot from Amazon.com, and so do many of our friends and family. I don't know anyone who does it solely because of 1-Click. Most people I know think Amazon.com has a big selection, offers reasonable prices, and reliably predicts when you'll "get your stuff".
Am I wrong to think that Rafe is out in left field on this one?
Technorati Tags: Google Checkout, Amazon 1-Click.
Comments
Rafe's commentary probably wasn't directed at consumers, rather at the large audience of online merchants who sell on Amazon.
ostensibly those merchants can now use Google Checkout along with Google Adwords to have both a convenient way to drive customers and handle payments, instead of having to list on Amazon or eBay marketplaces.
i don't know if Amazon or eBay have a lot to worry about right away, but i agree with Rafe they're probably very aware of the potential and monitoring it closely.
- dave mcclure
(full disclosure: i used to work at PayPal, and was on the Merchant Services team that did competitive analysis for such features from both Amazon, Google, and others)
Posted by: Dave McClure | October 24, 2006 9:38 PM