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The problem with most of these alternatives is that they are not ready for prime time. Google Checkout has limited availability internationally. Furthermore,
by rprasad 16y ago
The problem with most of these alternatives is that they are not ready for prime time.
Google Checkout has limited availability internationally. Furthermore, it has abysmal, nearly non-existent customer support. That's fine for a hobby site, but not for something a business relies on for its income.
Most of the other sites charge exchange fees for US transactions. That's fine if you don't have customers in the US, but not so good if you do.
Digital River is great (and Microsoft uses them to run its online store)...but not so great for small businesses. It's designed for and sold to large corporations. It can handle small businesses, but it's like using a sledgehammer when you need a hammer.
Amazon is really the only alternative for most situations, but it's also part of the Wikileaks mess...
- Vivtek 16y agoWait, how is Amazon involved?
- ichc-werker 16y agoThey took down Wikileaks' AWS instances. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/12/amazon-and-wikileaks-first-amendment-only-strong https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/12/amazon-and-wikileaks-f...
- Vivtek 16y agoWell, dang, who isn't -- Google, I guess?
- mdaniel 16y agoI can't comment on your assertion, but I did want to mention the other unspoken item: the network effect. It doesn't matter one whit that I have a moneybookers account if I can't use it to donate to the projects I support (or buy products, etc) because they are not on moneybookers. And I can assure you that "just signing up" for a money movement service is a _non-trivial_ operation.