Amazon Getting Out of P2P—at Least for Now (Sept. 16, 2014)
Amazon is shutting down its WebPay P2P money transfer service next month, the online retail giant announced this week. Operating under the company’s Amazon Payments umbrella, WebPay enables users to send, receive and request money via email address to any other Amazon Payments user. The service will be discontinued as of Oct. 13, when users will no longer see the option to send money after logging into their accounts. Explaining the decision on the Amazon Payments Website, the company said of WebPay, “We are not addressing a customer pain point particularly better than anyone else.” Several other major tech companies offer similar P2P services, including Google, PayPal and Square.
But despite the shuttering of WebPay, Amazon may not be ready to abandon P2P just yet. Earlier this year, the company placed an ad seeking talent for a strategy involving P2P payments. Meanwhile, the company continues efforts to expand into online payments, launching its Login and Pay with Amazon service in Europe today, less than a year after it debuted in the U.S.
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