Maybe it is a coincidence. Google recently started to offer a $10 credit to e-commerce customers who use its CheckOut product. For a few days Google (GOOG) even highlighted the offer for its PayPal competitor on its home page.
At about the same time, traffic to Ebay’s (EBAY) PayPal site has dropped sharply. According to on line audience measurement service Alexa, PayPal has dropped from a three month average of being the 686th most visited site on the web to No. 1835. The drop is so sharp that it is even highlighted on Alexa.com’s homepage.
Anecdotal evidence? Perhaps.
According to a recent report by JP Morgan, PayPal is still the preferred on line payment system, by a lot. But, CheckOut has picked up 6% of the market in its first year. And, Ebay would probably like that share to be zero.
In short, Ebay would not seem to have much to worry about, yet. The matter of the drop in traffic to the PayPal site may remain a mystery. Unless, of course, Google’s product picks up more share with its $10 offer.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.