Gpay Adds Insult To Injury

Just as users report a second major eBay property outage in the last 30 days, PayPal wake up to the stark reality of Google’s expansion plans with the publication of a new Patent application.

PayPal’s subscription service stopped working the same day, August 30. Service providers affected by the outage have been advised that the issue could take until September 5 or 6 to fix – possibly delaying tens of millions of dollars in monthly subscription payments.

In the meantime, the US Patent Office released details of Google’s text message-based payment system filed under the guise of Gpay on February 28, 2006. Although dubbed as a mobile web solution – possibly Google Checkout for mobile, Gpay does have the blueprint of being web independent. Images clearly indicate the offline payment of goods – including vending machines, point of delivery, and over-the-counter from retailers – where the transaction is facilitated using a mobile device.

In the same vein: Over in Europe, the contactless payment initiative, using MasterCard PayPass technology, is now well underway – and it’s target market has an uncanny resemblance to some of the Gpay cashless concept drawings!

However, with rumors still ripe over Google’s iPhone killer, Gpay could be an exclusive part of their Gphone offering – enabling mobile payments natively from the handset could be one of several moves to leapfrog other mobile operators. Despite a positive reception in March, PayPal Mobile hasn’t “set the world on fire”.

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