Comments on: Brand recognition: PayPal beats Google

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:22:14 +0000

Though I believe the “Left vs. Right” issue is most likely, as you said, “statistical noise,” this may be an explanation if not: Considering that the majority of the world’s population is right-handed, maybe the location on the right is simply more accessible for most people?

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:25:00 +0000

I think all these comments are likely to be true, and probably each contribute a few percent. Combined, they might account for how much more people choose Paypal.

By: PayPal vs GoogleCheckout revisited « Successful Software

PayPal vs GoogleCheckout revisited « Successful Software — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:30:53 +0000

[...] 2008 Google , ecommerce , paypal , software Tags: ecommerce, Google, GoogleCheckout, paypal I wrote back into December 2007 that 70% of my customers prefer PayPal over GoogleCheckout, given the choice. I re-checked the [...]

By: Patrick McKenzie

Patrick McKenzie — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 03:37:11 +0000

I think the single biggest issue with Paypal vs Google, I kid you not, is that Paypal has the sense to put recognizable credit card logos on their buttons and the Checkout team does not.

By: Braiman

Braiman — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:03:59 +0000

What were looking at in regards to GC and PayPal, is similar to Honda (Acura), Toyota (Lexus), and Nissan (Infiniti) trying to catch up to Mercedes Benz and BMW. They keep pushing but the new brands can’t compete with the history and established names of the ladder companies.

By: M Raja

M Raja — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 21:53:55 +0000

Adam, it doesn’t really matter how many people know Google to increase their share of checkout. Buyers are very choosy these days. Believe it or not, majority of the Google users don’t know what Froogle is.

Google Checkout may provide some new features, but persuading buyers
to jump to a whole new checkout service when PayPal already doing the exact job is a bit too much to ask for.

PayPal has been around for a long time now and they dominate some of the key areas like listing / auction sector. Probably its next to impossible to compete in these sectors.

In particular, Google needs to do a lot of work in their checkout product since PayPal is getting very aggressive and the soon to come Advanced Risk Predictors proves that PayPal already recognises the value of transaction data in reducing fraud and there by giving merchants more information and control over whether to accept payments,

Sometimes i just think Google just wants to grow more and more and doesn’t want to get any better. Actually it’s getting worse in some areas like targeted advertising and checkout.

I’ve tried both GC and PayPal in buying and also integrated to a few websites. Not happy with GC because of its slow processing and lack of customer support. i couldn’t believe there is no phone support for GC. So i always prefer PayPal which atleast respond to my emails when i am in trouble.

If you’re a merchant and accept Google Checkout just because it’s free this year, you’re part of the problem. Fix the issues Google, then you will have my support.

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:37:06 +0000

Have you considered that maybe its not so much “brand recognition” winning it for PayPal (I mean c’mon… almost everyone and their grandma knows who Google is), but the simple fact that PayPal has been around for much longer.

What I am getting at is that many people who have shopped online before already have a PayPal account set up, and probably don’t care to give their banking/card details to yet another company if they don’t have to… I don’t think its strictly a preference of PayPal over Google if a shopper has neither set up prior to the purchase, but then I do agree that the PayPal button/icon is much more “click me to pay for stuff” :)

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:53:48 +0000

Just to give my lay opinion on the buttons… The PayPal button looks like something that needs action (needs to be clicked to make a purchase). On the other hand, the Google Checkout button looks more like an ad. Of course, it may just be that I’m used to seeing the same Google Checkout button used in the Adwords ads on google.com (where it is non-clickable).