[ic] Status of Paypal Intergration [OT]

[Andrew Lietzow]

At 11:11 PM 5/2/2002, Jon Foster wrote:
>I believe that very soon we will see all of the major banks
>consolidating their resources and assets to allow for the omission of
>aggregators. I believe this is because they have suddenly realized that
>they were losing a lot of profit potential to these aggregators and want
>them out of the picture.

Same argument that I have for GNU versus not-GNU.  If everyone depended on 
the major banks to initiate easy online transactions, we'd still be 
wondering whether the Internet would ever catch on for e-commerce.  If 
everyone could have relied on Microsoft to make an operating system that 
you didn't have to reboot daily, we wouldn't have RedHat and all the other 
Linux Distro companies.

Now that Paypal and eBay have proved "it works" (online commerce for small 
businesses) and Paypal has signed up 15,000,000 customers, the vultures are 
starting to stir in their nests.  They see the prey and they don't care if 
the small Mom and Pop outfits can do business much more easily with a 
Paypal than a Mastercard.  They want their fees and have no interest in 
creating a venue that affords a lower rate to a small outfit.  That's the 
free enterprise system at work.

Fortunately, we have the Department of Justice for Microsoft or we'd all be 
forced to use IE for a browser.  I wish they would take a look at the big 
credit card companies and break them up, too.  Some of the fees they charge 
are at usury rates (miss a minimum payment of $16 and they charge you 
$35?), and only the heavy hand of government will dissuade them from 
clinging to these predatory practices...

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  As for me and my 
loyalty, I guess I go to where the service is great and the price is 
reasonable.  (I'm not against big credit card companies, but what have THEY 
done to help me build my e-commerce business?)  For Internet payments, they 
spell that P-a-y-p-a-l and GNU/GPL.  That includes RedHat Linux and now 
RedHat Interchange.

Now if someone has a better online merchant services plan, *I'm all ears* 
because I want to make it easy for my customers to do business with me, and 
for me to do business with them.  And, I'd sure like to have a plug-n-play 
solution with IC.

When I spoke with my bank (later purchased by Wells Fargo) and said I 
wanted to set up an online processing capability for my Internet business, 
they looked at me like I had three heads.

RE:>>...losing a lot of profit potential to these aggregators and want
>them out of the picture.

Exactly. And, whose pockets come these profits?  I'm not against a company 
being profitable.  That has to happen, but when another startup company 
finds a niche, it's always interesting to observe how long the big boys 
wait until they pounce.  Sometimes, it's too late and the new company has 
enough momentum that the left hook dazes them--they take a 1-2 count--but 
they jump back up and go on to win the fight.  Sure, if Visa also pulls the 
plug, Paypal could be in big trouble.  I wonder who we'll go to then for 
easy online payment processing?  Who will fill the niche of 71% that Paypal 
now processes for millions of eBay sellers?

RE:>>It's a shame that they were unwilling to take the initial risks and do 
the proper due diligence that would have enabled them to do this sooner and 
make our jobs more doable.

Amen.

Andrew Lietzow, MBA
The ACL Group, Inc.