Paymate chums once more with eBay

Australian online credit card payments processor Paymate will be integrated into eBay Australia's checkout system from about July.

In a remarkable turn-around, eBay Australia has moved from trying to ban other payment methods to now integrating Paymate into its checkout pages.

Paymate was originally developed for eBay Australia but was largely dumped when the US parent company purchased PayPal and brought it to Australia five years ago.

PayPal quickly became the dominant online payment method on eBay, while Paymate struggled to keep a foothold in the online payments marketplace. Paymate secured significant acceptance deals with some big online marketplaces in recent years but the dominant online marketplace is eBay, a fact considered at length by the ACCC in 2008.

Two years ago Paymate led a campaign against eBay's application to the ACCC to enable it to force buyers and sellers to use PayPal for all eBay payments. The ACCC rejected that proposal.

The latest move was welcomed yesterday by the Graham Samuels, chairman of the competition regulator the ACCC. The ACCC announced yesterday that as a result of eBay's changes to its checkout, it will discontinue its current inquiries into eBay's payment policies.
 
These developments represent the last final chapter in eBay's abortive attempt to force all buyers and sellers to use PayPal.

It now seems that even at around that time eBay was negotiating with Paymate about the possible return of its prodigal son to eBay.com.au.

"It's about two years now that we have been discussing this with eBay," said Dilip Rao, managing director and founder of Paymate.

"It is an absolutely great development for us and a wise decision by them to allow competition on their site between payment methods.

"We have always been an accepted method of payment on eBay, but for real competition you need to be integrated into the checkout system and that is now happening."

Rao says the success of Paymate on eBay's US site, eBay.com, has prompted this move by eBay Australia.

"We have taken off like a rocket on eBay.com with growth rates of 40 to 50 per cent per month.

"That success and the work we have done with eBay in the US makes it easy for the Australians to take us on and add us to the checkout."