

Why has no payment startup emerged as a meaningful challenger to PayPal? - tkanet

see tkanet answer at
http://www.quora.com/Online-Mobile-Payments/Why-has-no-payment-startup-emerged-as-a-meaningful-challenger-to-PayPal
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tkanet
I think it is just a matter of "new marketplaces". Paypal benefited from the
eBay marketplace ...and found casual online merchants.

Generally, marketplaces get hooked with very few mainstream payment methods.

Next time there will be a completly new marketplace, with new types of
merchants and new market mechanic...you will see a new, major player...but it
has to be disruptive to PayPal.

Online to Offline is a new marketplace in many ways...looking for a unified
payment. If i am not mistaken, the next big payment player may come from
that....

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dotBen
Anti fraud detection.

It's an issue when you reach scale, hard to detect, and if you end up being
ultra sensitive you end up behaving like jerks freezing accounts for no reason
(ie what PayPal does today).

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skbohra123
so, what's the solution? That's the question.

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dotBen
I don't think there is one, the only solution to fraud detection issue is to
build something that will ultimately just become like PayPal is with all it's
frustrations and shortfalls.

You are also up against regulatory issues (you skirt around becoming a bank =
highly regulated) and the massive network effects PayPal/eBay have.

I heard that Square had to pause growth to deal with fraud, and they have the
benefit of having Visa/MasterCard/Amex as intermediaries.

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cme
You just have to be proactive with paypal..contact them before launching, stay
in touch with them to resolve/ prevent any issues (hopefully) before they
arise.

