Search giant Google has expanded its US payment service, Google Checkout to the UK, in hopes to continue competing with eBay's Paypal service. "The starting point is our core products," said Google's UK consumer marketing chief, Obi Felton. Checkout "is the conclusion of the transaction cycle" of consumers finding retailers through searches and advertising. Google was unwilling to say when the service might expand into the rest of Europe.
Despite Google's efforts, Paypal remains the dominant single payments player in the US. A Jupiter Research survey carried out in November and December 2006 found the majority of payments are still credit or debit card transactions processed through retailers' own systems. Of end-to-end payments services - those which try to smooth the process of shopping online by storing payment information centrally - Paypal led the pack, with about 25% of the US online payments market. Other players such as Billmelater took about 5-6% and Google Checkout was on 2%. If eBay transactions are taken out of the picture, the non-eBay share for Paypal drops to an estimated 8%-9% - still a comfortable lead, but less overwhelming.
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News source: BBC News
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