The Cost Of Google Checkout: $58 Million

MarketWatch looked through a Google regulatory filing and found the number that I’ve been looking for: 58 million dollars. That’s how much money Google spent on promoting Google Checkout in all of 2006. Is that number likely to go down? Maybe, because Google isn’t aggressively discountintg this year like it did last year (just wait till the holiday shopping season, though). Still, there’s another number that’s guaranteed for 2007:
$0
That’s how much revenue Google Checkout will generate in 2007. Regardless of increased or decreased promotions, Checkout won’t bank a dime, because Google has decided that its big promotion for 2007 is not charging any merchant processing fees.
If $58 million a drop in the bucket for megabucks Google? Maybe, but its not the way I’d want my company to do business. Google is pushing Checkout by buying its way into the market, not on […]

Original post by Nathan Weinberg