Is it just me, but the news today that eBay are trying to force all Australian users of its website to use PayPal seems to be a bit of a strange strategy.
Don't they remember that PayPal succeeded because it was available across all sites and did not have the same restrictive practices or usage that eBay's own payment service, Billpoint, had? That was the reason PayPal succeeded and why eBay acquired them.
Harking back to 2002, when eBay abandoned Billpoint and acquired PayPal, here's just one paragraph of commentary from CNET that they should bear in mind as they talk to the Ozzies:
"Meanwhile, Billpoint had something else going against it: its
association with eBay. While some analysts saw that as an asset, many
sellers worried about eBay extending its dominance in auctions to
online payments as well. Many were reluctant to rely even more on eBay
than they already did and rejected eBay's more heavy-handed attempts to
promote the service, such as last fall when it required require sellers to use Billpoint in its Auction for America charity effort ... that could spell problems for eBay after it acquires PayPal. Already
some sellers are talking about abandoning PayPal, worried that with it,
eBay will become too powerful."
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
