Hacking for fun and profit

Google has finally announced their long anticipated “paypal killer”. The name: Google Checkout.

One cool feature of Google Checkout is that you can buy from stores with a single Google login – no more entering the same info each time you buy, and no more having to remember different usernames and passwords for each store. To help you find places to shop, you’ll see a little icon on the Google.com ads of stores offering Google Checkout. It’s an easy way to identify fast, secure places to shop when you search. And after you’ve placed your order, Google Checkout provides a purchase history where you can track your orders and shipping information in one place.

And clickz reports:

Additionally, AdWords advertisers will receive free payment processing for sales of up to 10 times their monthly spending. A company spending $1,000 in one month for AdWords would receive $10,000 worth of free payment processing the next month. Beyond that, or for non-advertisers, the charge will be $0.20 and two percent of the sale per transaction. PayPal charges 1.9 percent and $0.30 per transaction.

But, is it a paypal killer?

I don’t think so, but it will really hurt paypal since it operates in it’s most profitable market: business online payments. It doesn’t compete in the peer to peer payment arena, maybe in the future.

Now let’s see paypal’s reaction on all this. Competition will be good.