Will Google Checkout Fail in Q4-2008?

January 4th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

Will Google Checkout Fail in Q4-2008?Between now and Aug 19, 2008, more than 15% of Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) workforce may resign. While turnover is normal in any company, when it becomes a matter of being set for life, you certainly face a challenge. What benefits, services, or salaries can you really offer those with enough money to last them a lifetime? It seems that many of the 2003-era employees will be vested this year, meaning that those badly in need of the high-end developers for services such as Google Checkout may not be there by the next holiday season.

As Google Checkout continues to fail at gaining any sustainable traction, one can only wonder—Will it continue? Unlike any other Google service, Google Checkout is the single largest money pit in their portfolio of services. As Google has burned through over $100MM in an effort to drive new merchants and keep them, one can only ask: will that continue when 1/2 its senior developers leave?

While many people are still going long on Google, what happens when the magic of search is no longer enough to sustain a portfolio of services that are loss leaders at the end of the day? For my bet, I believe Larry Page and Sergey Brin will figure this out and if not, Google may go down as the most successful one hit wonder in history. Heyyyyy Macarena!

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There Are 9 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Burt on 5 January 2008:

    I guess Google itself is to blame for failure of its checkout. Rather than integrating it with its services as sole payment processor, just like E-bay did to Paypal,Google gave it a foster treatment. No doubt it had to suffer.

  2. Comment by Mike on 5 January 2008:

    I think it is still possible for them to turn it around for one reason: because it is Google. They really need to put some work into getting more merchants to use it though.

  3. Comment by Joseph on 6 January 2008:

    Well, google’s influence over the internet is something no one can even discuss, and I am pretty sure they are aware of these “issues” and they will work on that, as usual.

  4. Comment by GreenYellow on 7 January 2008:

    They can always hire me ;)

  5. Comment by Mikey on 7 January 2008:

    Well, Google is a big company and I don’t think they will let it fail in any case. They have invested a good amount of money in this and they are smart enough to develop plans to make a profit off this.

  6. Comment by anand on 7 January 2008:

    Ya slowups in economy is doing all thing. There is no other options left with them but to cut the jobs.

  7. Comment by Mike on 7 January 2008:

    @ anand: whats? cut jobs? where does it say anything about that? This is about Google checkout not performing. Also, they aren’t cutting jobs, they have lost some employee base due to people resigning.

  8. Comment by Dart on 8 January 2008:

    They want to own the whole internet? but that would be very hard like now? they are having some problem with that payment pro, because you can never please everyone someone will still use a counter part.

  9. Comment by Mohd on 25 January 2008:

    why are the staff resigning. internal problems? do you mind sharing?

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