

Icing PayPal: How We Did It - sophmonroe
http://blog.wepay.com/2010/10/icing-paypal-how-we-did-it/

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forensic
What I've learned from this: Calculated publicity stunts done by massive
corporations are no less endearing to me than calculated publicity stunts done
by small y-combinator startups.

I look at this publicity stunt with the same yawn+rolleyes as when Richard
Branson takes his clothes off or Donald Trump insults Rosie O'Donnel.

It's good business, I guess, but it's ham-handed and doesn't move me.

~~~
rsbrown
My guess is that if you'd already heard of WePay before yesterday, you weren't
the target audience for this publicity stunt.

~~~
forensic
I totally get that it was successful stunt that got them attention. Any
attention is good attention and all that. That wasn't my point though.

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poet
The idea is excellent, but the execution could have been better. I don't want
a financial company I use to have a plan revolving around running away from a
security guard. Had they done some social engineering or even obtained some
sort of permit through their lawyers to leave the ice there, I would have been
much more impressed. After all, who can say no to an up and coming ice
sculptor wanting to display his work outside a hotel for a day? Still though,
great idea.

~~~
billclerico
we're a startup with a lot on our plate and this was a fun side project. we
didn't spend weeks planning this, just a night.

~~~
poet
I know the criticism is unfair, which is why I tried to couch it. :)

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FreeRadical
This approach to business feels a bit amateur and lacking in class to me. I
realise there has been a fair amount of publicity after this episode, and
maybe I am 'old school' but it just doesn't feel right.

~~~
ascuttlefish
P. T. Barnum, now he was old school! He never shied away from using ridiculous
stunts like this to get attention. He would write newspapers under pseudonyms
railing at his own products to get noticed. He once hired a begger to place 4
bricks at various points on the sidewalk outside his famous museum. The begger
would take a 5th brick and walk around on a circuit, replacing each brick with
the brick in his hand. Every hour, he would brandish a ticket and walk through
all the galleries of the museum. Soon, he'd generated enough curiosity that
people were buying tickets to the museum just to follow him around. Some were
even staying inside, captivated by what they found on display.

Foolish stunts are as old school as it gets.

~~~
wyclif
"The Fabulous Showman" bio of P.T. Barnum. Essential business reading.

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citricsquid
I want to understand why this is good marketing and who has moved from Paypal
to Wepay. The services are very different, Wepay seems to cater to a tiny
percentage of American Paypal users, it's like Hackernews competing with
Reddit. Can anyone clarify if this is a legitimate "move to Wepay from
paypal!" thing or if it's just a way to get attention, not necessarily
customers?

~~~
noodle
i think this was more about getting press and making people aware of wepay's
existence. most people who fit into their niche are likely not aware of them.

~~~
pbogdan
Please, correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think their niche overlaps too
much with paypal customers. So why would they market themselves as a direct
competitor to paypal? Why would they, given this premise, advertise to paypal
customers at all?

If you read the whole story you will get the impression they are paypal
competitors - that is, unless you visit their website and read comments here.
You will find out they are nothing like paypal and they won't replace it.

They're riding paypal disappointment tide _cough_ diaspora _cough_ yet they
don't offer viable replacement.

There's been a lot of negative opinions about paypal coming from this very
community but, in my opinion, if they position themselves as paypal competitor
a lot of people will be disappointed in their offering right now.

Do you think it's a good way to market themselves? Or should they focus on
their core audience via other channels? Or maybe paypal customers are indeed
wepay's customers in the making?

~~~
noodle
they are not a direct competitor. their offering is not equal to paypal's.
they only do a few things, but try to do them well.

the services they provide are similar to some things that people are doing
with paypal.

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oneplusone
Man I would love to use WePay, but from their website they don't seem to do
the same thing as PayPal at all. Can you send any WePay user money via email?

~~~
LeBlanc
WePay lets you collect money (people can pay you with credit card or bank
account) and then you can send money that you've collected to whoever you
want. So you could, if you wanted, put money in your group and then send it
easily to whoever.

~~~
palish
So... "No."

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nick_swan
I hate PayPal with a passion. We've been using it for 3 years as our online
payment processing and every 3 months or so they do something that causes us
hassle like an auto refund for no valid reason. I've considered changing - but
then just think other payment processors are probably just as bad? Or are
there really good guys out there?

~~~
jamroom
Having used PayPal to process thousands of transactions for almost 8 years
now, I've never once seen PayPal issue a refund for "no valid reason". You
will always receive an email outlining why the funds are being placed on hold
pending an investigation. You will also have the opportunity to respond to
that investigation by providing whatever correspondence, log files, etc. you
feel are pertinent to the investigation.

I Have also worked with many other payment providers (2checkout,
authorize.net, AlertPay, WorldPay, FastSpring) and they all do the same thing.

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chunkbot
Does WePay process payments themselves, or do they use a third party payment
processor?

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Nogwater
Can you use WePay to automatically charge for premium usage of a web app (one
time and/or subscription)?

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pavel_lishin
I wonder what the charge would have been if the police got involved.
Littering?

~~~
jmaygarden
Perhaps they would be charged with disturbing the peace or disorderly conduct.
Most localities have catch-all ordinances that police can use in these
situations.

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27182818284
What image did the one dollar bills form inside of the ice? I feel like there
is something there I'm missing.

~~~
27182818284
I wasn't being sarcastic it looked like maybe there was a 2nd joke in the
arrangement of the fives vs the ones. Oh well.

