PayPal Perspective

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PayPal Perspective

"What's the latest on PayPal from your perspective? There are still websites that are campaigning against PayPal. Since the last court proceeding do you think PayPal has improved to be a good online processing company?" -- Bal Bhagat, Exotic Leaf Paintings

A year ago I wrote "Assessing Criticism of PayPal," Web Commerce Today, 3/15/02, examining various charges against PayPal (www.wilsonweb.com/wct5/paypal_assess.htm). I stand by my conclusions. PayPal made some enemies, though I know they're working to improve customer service.

I see them improving service for merchants with their Instant Payment Notification (IPN) feature, by providing fraud protection, and by rapidly increasing the number of countries from which merchants may withdraw PayPal revenues to a local bank account. Where else can a merchant receive payments in multiple currencies for this price?

PayPal payment is a bit more difficult for the customer than the average online credit card payment -- unless the customer is already a PayPal member; then it's a snap. But PayPal has reduced the up-front costs of starting an e-commerce site to practically nothing. They've done us all a service by lowering the barriers to online business. I increasingly use PayPal both to send and receive payments and recommend it to others.