Google has announced the closure of Google Checkout, the online payment system used by small merchants, with users being given until 20 November to migrate to an alternative.
Instead, Google will focus on Google Wallet, "a platform that enables merchants to meet the demands of a multi-screen world where consumers shop in-stores, at their desks and on their mobile devices," according to Justin Lawyer, senior product manager for Google Wallet.
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Furthermore, Google is also introducing new APIs into the Wallet platform to enable merchants to tap customers' Google Wallets.
"The Instant Buy API enables merchants to offer a fast buying experience to Google Wallet shoppers buying physical goods and services on their Android apps and websites, while processing their own payments. In addition, the new Wallet Objects API enables merchants to engage their customers with loyalty, offers and more."
Instant Buy, though, is a US-only option at this stage.
Merchants using Google Checkout that don't have your own payment processing in place will need to shift to a different system. Google claims that it has put in discounted migration options in place so that merchants can easily shift to Braintree, Shopify or Freshbooks.
Developers selling via Google Play, the Chrome Web Store or the Offers Marketplace will automatically be shift to the Google Wallet Merchant Center "in the next few weeks".
The decision to kill Google Checkout, though, will not have much impact on end-users.
It does, though, demonstrate that Google is not omnipotent. It is, suggest observers, a tacit admission of defeat against eBay-owned PayPal, which is widely regarded as the number one "alternative" online payment system.
Google Checkout failed to gain much traction among merchants, however, who are always sensitive to payment processing costs.
The battle, though, is now moving to the physical world, where Paypal is among a slew of contenders in the new era of mobile digital payment services.
According to analysts, Google remains under-developed in this area, where its Google Wallet application often stores little more than a payment card number, which the merchant's conventional bank had to process as normal.
