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I’ve been pondering for a while why Google never tried to acquire PayPal, and/or perhaps most importantly Venmo (which is part of it). With Android & Chrome being the platforms that they are, the ultra tight integration of payment of PayPal/Venmo should be interesting to unlock more payment growth. Yes Google has the technical ability to build competitors to those, but the market of consumers/SMB’s don’t appear to understand the Google payment offering. Whereas with PayPal/Venmo as the frontend brand, it’d be hard to argue that the market would be confused given the already existing uses and brand appeal. Of course this sort of merger may raise all sorts of antitrust flags so maybe it’s just a thought experiment and nothing else for now.

discuss

nicoburns|4 years ago

Googl Pay is pretty popular here in the UK. The value proposition is simple: it's like a debit card, but it uses your phone, and thus can be more convenient in certain circumstances.

From my european perspective, where sending money between bank accounts is free and easy using their first party apps, the last thing I'd want involved is paypal who have a reputation for stealing people's money and generally being difficult to deal with.

b112|4 years ago

The real problem is, who wants to integrate/use something Google may shut down tomorrow, and, google is famous for no customer support.

Paypal is known for support issues, but Google?! That's a whole other level of support pain ..

I can just imagine my account blocked, thousands there, and... what? A wall of canned support answers, no recourse, misery.

This is Google.

lrem|4 years ago

A timeout and an automatic refund? Not giving back unspent money is something that no legal department on this planet would risk.

Edit: come think of it, I know counterexamples :(

hellbannedguy|4 years ago

I don't know why they don't advertise more?

They own the internet's biggest advertising platforms, but I don't know 1/2 if their products.

I just said to myself I need to look into Google pay. Then I realized I use it on their domain registration app.

And by advertising---not the typical hip flashy "Street" horrid ads they are notorious for, but just a developer taking about a useful product.