RBC Capital Markets maintained an "outperform" rating on Google in light of the impending launch of the company's online payment system, currently known as "GBuy."
Consumers using GBuy, which is set for release on June 28, will be taken off the merchant's site to complete the payment. This will enable Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) to capture e-commerce transaction data, driving more precise targeting in future searches.
"If harnessed, the precision of this targeting could be revolutionary," wrote RBC analyst Jordan Rohan in a report Friday.
On its core search results pages, Google will designate each merchant accepting GBuy as a "trusted GBuy merchant." If consumers view this as a mark of safety and security, Rohan believes this should increase click-through rate.
The analyst expects some resistance from merchants who will fear that Google will use the transaction data to charge them more for sponsored links in the future. Google's bid rank algorithm is influenced by click-through rate, and would, therefore, favor GBuy merchants, he said.
GBuy looks to be a direct competitor to PayPal's "off-eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people )" initiative, which is still early in its development, Rohan added. During the beta phase, Google will not charge merchants for its payment service. After some period, the analyst believes Google will charge 1.5% to 2%, in-line to slightly below that of PayPal.
"Short term, GBuy is more negative for eBay than it is positive for Google," Rohan said. "Longer-term, it could be a game-changer."
http://www.forbes.com/markets/2006/06/09/google-0609markets09.html
http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/marketinginsider/wpn-50-20060206GoogleTestingPayPalKillerGBuy.html
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2006/02/06/googles_gbuy_to_take_on_paypal.html
