Referred to as GBuy in the press, Google’s online payment system has drawn little public comment from the company.
When asked to comment on the system, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that the company was testing a system that lets customers purchase from advertisers “more quickly than through other mechanisms.”
While the precise nature of the product is unknown, Schmidt was adamant that Google’s payment system was “not like PayPal at all.”
Analysts such as Jordan Rohan of RBC Capital Markets, who has gone on record saying that Google will launch this week, disagrees with Schmidt.
“Yes, it's a PayPal competitor," Rohan said. “GBuy is focused on consumer to merchant transactions, but there is no reason why it eventually could not be expanded to consumer to consumer."
PayPal, owned by Silicon Valley-based eBay, has long been the established leader in the online payment sector.
While PayPal has refused to process transactions for adult content online, there is no word on what competition from Google might mean in terms mainstream payment firms looking to capitalize on the multibillion-dollar online porn industry.
As for all the secrecy, an article by Elinor Mills from CNET News surmised that rumors surrounding the launch of the anticipated service have done more to spread the buzz than anything else.