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But that Paypal does this shit has been a hardy perennial new story for years now. Competitors are coming, slowly, from different directions, but it's not clear

by v21 15y ago

But that Paypal does this shit has been a hardy perennial new story for years now. Competitors are coming, slowly, from different directions, but it's not clear that Paypal is actually much damaged by these stories.

danilocampos 15y ago
Blockbuster wasn't damaged by all the ill-will they created by charging absurd, usurious late fees. They were the king of their realm, as PayPal is now. But, making your customers loathe you turns out to be a bad idea in the long term. The very moment reasonable alternatives present themselves, those customers are gone for good. PayPal has done a lot of legwork, especially for international commerce. But this legwork can and will be done again one day – or, someone will discover an interesting workaround that makes this legwork unnecessary for some specific but perhaps very common cases. Human ingenuity is inevitable, especially with such rich rewards waiting. Either way, PayPal won't enjoy its position forever. Unless they turn these perceptions around, it'll be hard fall.
- wmf 15y ago
  Hasn't PayPal been screwing people for ten years? I suspect there's some reason why no better competitor exists.
  - code_duck 15y ago
    Paypal was the first to rise to the top, and has since benefited from the network effect. It's only been about 5 years since the average American started to be comfortable buying products online.
    - dangrossman 15y ago
      There were real competitors when PayPal was a younger company, but a lot of them went out of business because they didn't solve the fraud problem. It wasn't just a matter of adoption. PayPal hemorrhaged millions to fraud before they created the technical and people systems to make it manageable.
      - hfz 15y ago
        Anyone interested with the fraud problem story can read more in Jessica Livingstone's book, Founders at Work.
  - CamperBob 15y ago
    Most likely patents. That's why there's no effective US-based competition for eBay, anyway.

by v21 15y ago

danilocampos 15y ago

Blockbuster wasn't damaged by all the ill-will they created by charging absurd, usurious late fees. They were the king of their realm, as PayPal is now. But, making your customers loathe you turns out to be a bad idea in the long term. The very moment reasonable alternatives present themselves, those customers are gone for good. PayPal has done a lot of legwork, especially for international commerce. But this legwork can and will be done again one day – or, someone will discover an interesting workaround that makes this legwork unnecessary for some specific but perhaps very common cases. Human ingenuity is inevitable, especially with such rich rewards waiting. Either way, PayPal won't enjoy its position forever. Unless they turn these perceptions around, it'll be hard fall.

wmf 15y ago
Hasn't PayPal been screwing people for ten years? I suspect there's some reason why no better competitor exists.
- code_duck 15y ago
  Paypal was the first to rise to the top, and has since benefited from the network effect. It's only been about 5 years since the average American started to be comfortable buying products online.
  - dangrossman 15y ago
    There were real competitors when PayPal was a younger company, but a lot of them went out of business because they didn't solve the fraud problem. It wasn't just a matter of adoption. PayPal hemorrhaged millions to fraud before they created the technical and people systems to make it manageable.
    - hfz 15y ago
      Anyone interested with the fraud problem story can read more in Jessica Livingstone's book, Founders at Work.
- CamperBob 15y ago
  Most likely patents. That's why there's no effective US-based competition for eBay, anyway.