Tuesday, 7 August 2007

Amazon Takes On eBay, Google

Amazon.com Inc. has opened its payment system to other Web sites in a move that would pit it against eBay Inc's PayPal and Google’s CheckOut...

Amazon.com Inc. has opened its payment system to other Web sites in a move that would pit it against eBay Inc's PayPal and Google’s CheckOut.

The service, called Amazon Flexible Payments Service, will allow users to make payments directly from their bank accounts as well as with credit cards. The service allows Web developers to easily create payment engines on their websites. And while Checkout has suffered after being launched with much fanfare in 2006, Amazon feels that its extensive experience in the payments space gives it a leg up.

The payment system operates under the umbrella of Amazon Web Services, a relatively new division of the online retailer that allows start-ups as well as established businesses to rent Amazon's computing and other Web services on demand.