

WePay (YC S09) takes on PayPal directly; Q&A with co-founder Rich Aberman - waderoush
http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2011/07/21/going-directly-at-the-beast-wepay-takes-on-paypal-with-new-tools-for-online-merchants/

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tluyben2
Other people asked this not in so many words; Paypal really really sucks.
Simple as that. Yet everyone uses it because it's everywhere and most online
shops accept it. How are you going to prevent turning into a fraud outfit like
Paypal? You know; taking thousands to tens of thousands willy-nilly without
any proof of misconduct? Blocking accounts randomly because they were 'flagged
as fraud' (based on, well, some if(full_moon)flag(account_no); Not documented,
no possibility to fight it and so on)? Taking insane commissions on
transactions as well as playing the forex market by always giving your clients
the absolute worst conversion rate for their money possible?

I know fraud prevention is important, but PP definitely takes it way way too
far. I know 100s of legit small companies who had their accounts
closed/blocked, money stolen (because, let's face it, that's what it is; they
are just outright thieves in these cases) or locked for months and months
without giving any reason just 'fraud detected' or something lame like that.
While there was no fraud, at least never on the side of the company; MAYBE on
the side of it's buyers, but what does _that_ have to do with the company?
Anyway; I can rant on about this forever, but I won't. I wonder what kind of
warm feeling you can give us as co-founder.

You just started, so answering whatever to the above will work; you will
probably turn into pure undiluted _evil_ in a few years (if you are
successful) anyway. So then what's the reason to get away from Paypal if you
can choose between evil#1 and evil#2? Sure it's nice to ride the waves of
something that doesn't have horns for a while. I'm willing to bet most people
won't though as they know everything which gets large will turn into Paypal
and then the conversion and hassle is not worth it.

And US only; how is that taking on Paypal? Taking on Paypal would mean getting
_all_ countries in, also the ones Paypal does not allow. And rapido.

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JacobAldridge
I'm making the assumption that this is USD only at this stage, just because my
understanding is that moving up to more currencies (GDP, AUD, EUR) is an order
of magnitude more difficult, followed again by moving up to any / most
currencies. Am I correct?

Even if I am, I'm sure that's a future plan, and I look forward to it.

~~~
aberman
You are correct, sir. On all accounts.

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mbesto
If WePay is really taking on PayPal directly then how is it going to
differentiate itself? For all of the woes I've heard about PayPal, there's
more legitimate woes about who can disrupt this industry without spending a
ridiculous amount in fraud prevention costs and government regulations.

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mootothemax
Taking on PayPal directly? For all PayPal's faults, at least I can use them
for when based in the UK or in Poland.

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danielhunt
Yup - US only. unhappy face.

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thinkcomp
This seems as though it would change the character of WePay's business enough
that it might now be considered a money transmitter.

