Paypal Competition: Greenzap
 

Hello, I stumbled across a new concept/alternative to paypal.

Green zap is a new site that opens up in june, and they intend to be a paypal type site, that rewards you with money for referals.

They justify being able to do this, by explaining that it costs companies like paypal a lot of money to advertise and get their name out, and instead of spending money on things like advertising, they simply pay you for referals you give them.

Until they open up they are giving $25 dollars just for preregistering (this will show up in your account when they open). They also give you $5 dollars for every referal you get them. THey have extended ammounts too for after they open.

Check it out, and I look forward to its release. After its release I plan to make a paying subscription system for vb3 as well.

http://www.greenzap.com

intreseting. I doubt they would compete paypal tho...

ALso, paypal also has a referal program...

Not like this, read their information. They have great potential to compete with paypal, specialy if they have better selling tools, which woulnt be too hard to do. Im hoping for lower payment acceptment fees too.

<a href="http://www.greenzap.com/" target="_blank">http://www.greenzap.com/</a>

Well i signed under you :)

I still don't think they could compete with PayPal.
Paypal has the biggest support and all.
But perheps i'll be wrong.

interesting.... Thanks

I hope so, I really have been ripped by paypal many times. Hell I have to send a copy of my software to people by cd now, just so they cant tell paypal they didnt recive it, when I see in their account that they downloaded it.

sorry, this has been done many times and people usually get ripped.

o.O example?

And how do people get ripped? they dont ask for any banking info yet. Please if you are going to say anything bad about something, use examples please.

This is totally wrong, they offer very poor supports.

http://www.greenzap.com/zajako , lol

Yes, I noticed the referal code in his link as well - I lost interest at that point .....

same here, and the funny thing is that after I got his name in there's no way to take it out the referrals input, this isn't funny at all.

o.O whats wrong with being refered? You get $25 dollars for signing up under a referal. Free in your account in june when they open up.

If you want to sign up without the referal just goto www.greenzap.com
If you already clicked my link, just delete your cookies and goto that url. But like I said there is no loss of being refered, only gain, and not just for me.

you were advertising for yourself

Not actualy, Im not advertising at all. Im simply showing you guys this site, as it could possibly out perform paypal, which is something almost everyone here has used.

Me making it have my referal link is just getting credit for the fact that I am refering you guys. I didnt make this post for the referals and would have made it even if there was no referal system as I see this site has a ton of potential. However I am refering you guys, thus I used the referal link they gave me.

This is not advertising. This is informing. I explicitly mentioned about how it has a referal system in my first post, so isnt it obvious I am going to make my link a referal?

This is just as valid as if I were posting a link to a forum with a referer link in it. I deserve the credit for refering someone when I actualy refered it.

Regardless James, we don't allow referall links here :) But thanks for the heads up!

No problem

You can't signup without a code. You need a referer to get the code. Zajako was giving you guys a said code, and he gets credit for it.
I stumbled upon this myself and I couldn't find a code for a while.
deathemperor, you cannot sign up without the code, so it kind of defeats the purpose to take it out. Try clearing your cookies and try it again, it'll still ask for a code.
This community has gotten so hostile, it's no wonder I dont' come here any more. It's become an ego-stroking jerk-fest for "Elite Coders":tired: .

Yeah, I quit coming here about 2 years ago because of the same crap.
Its just not fun anymore when everyone fights everything.

even if this site is planning to be like PayPal, they lack one thing (well two, but we don't count money) - momentum.

they have tons of momentum, and charisma too o.O

when they originaly opened their server got hit with so many hits it crashed. They had to get many more servers right off the bat, thats a lot of momentum!!

Its also backed by quite a few major banks such as Citibank. (There's your money)
Even eBay signed up for it, and they OWN paypal O.o (There's your momentum ;))
Besides, theres a huge crowd of people paypal screwed over. To the point that sites dedicated to its downfall have sprung up.

Feel free to PM the referral link to each other. But we do not allow referral links on this site as per our anti-spam/ advertising rules. :) We apologize if you feel that this causes "fighting" because that's not the intention at all. You all run your own forums so I'm sure you understand. Any issues feel free to PM me. :)

this sounds pretty interesting, first time I'm hearing about it though :)

I've heard about it, and seen it, although i won't actually go any further than that until it has been launched, people have tried it and feedback has been all good, it may be a competitor, but it is still new, and for most people out there looking for online payment methods, they feel more secure and comftable with those that have a good reputation such as PayPal.

I am not disputing what this is, but until more information has been revealed and it has been put through the test, i'll stay clear, always best to stick to what you know is reliable.

A safe approach, you might wanna take the same action.

- Zero Tolerance

eBay tried to compete with Paypal on their own site and got stomped. They had the money and plenty of ability to promote their service. Ultimately they just decided to buy paypal.

It is going to take a lot for any company to compete. And unless the company is MicroSoft or some other huge $$ making company, I dont see it happening.

You were wrong, I signed up with no code. I pressed Zajako's link in FF so IE has no referers.

Yep I registered, just to know if without a referer code I could do it.

GreenZap info was sent to me a few weeks back. 10 minutes of Googling turned up some interesting sites and their questions and responses. There were a few links to the San Diego BBB, the past history of the man behind it's other adventures(Masumah, or something like that), and one that listed GreenZaps whois address as a mail drop in "Ralphs Convenience Store"

Could be legit, but visions of multi-level marketing and pyramid schemes jump out to me.

i signed up just for the free $5 and if i cant take it no loss here

Exactly - Its not exactly costing me anything but about 3 minutes to fill in the form ;)

Satan

Hey, if it's free money go for it. :) To be honest though, I can't see how they can keep on giving away free money. If 100,000 people sign up, the company has to give away half a million bucks!

I am very wary of this site and would be reluctant to give them any of my financial info. The little warez-type spellings don't fill me with confidence.

I haven't given them any of my financial data yet - And if I was going to, I'd give them info to my other bank account, which has about 5p in it :p

Satan

Let us not speak of illegal hackers. If you speak of it they threaten you! Gota love it. But there are some good people around the ass holes here.

What I ment by momentum is not advertising and big name groups.

I am talking members. Although it seems that we here are almost all signed up for it. But we are a very special niche group. We specialize in online activites one way or an other. More importantly, many of us are heavily involved in financial transactions online - therefore it is in our interest to monitor companies like Greenzap.

I referred to momentum of going out to the corner grocery store and asking 100 people what is greenzap, then asking what is paypal? What do you think the public knowledge would be for each?

I am very leary of any company that "gives away" money. I worked in the venture capital industry right around the dot com boom and bust. The road to destruction was littered with companies who gave away stuff because they thought "people will come".

Greenzap's marketing strategy is based on word of mouth. "...GreenZap expects their community to spread the word...", and "Fortune 500 companies spend hundreds of dollars in an effort to acquire a single customer"

The problem is in their business structure is that Fortune 500 companies spend hundreds of dollars to get thousands or millions of dollars back from a single customer. This is not the case with greeenzap - "GreenZap Gold Account holders are only charged a flat fee of just $1 per online transaction".

So, in a nutshell, greenzaps method of creating brand recognition, and customer momentum is by word of mouth, and giving away money.

They income structure is volume. $1 per transaction. So for each new potential customer they have to make at least 5 to 30 transactions.

Start to see the problem? When you signed up and GOT the reward, you did not yet become a full customer. You will be as soon as you made your first transaction, but what are the chances that each and every individual who signs up will also make transactions, at least sufficient amount to cover the cost of aquisition.
(Ex. from an other web site "new site being launched called GreenZap. What's it for? Doesn't matter. When you sign up you get $25 to spend on eBay.")

Some other problems - there is no mention of ATM/eCheck/Credit card/Bank account services features, connectivity, transaction methods, et al.

This is a crucial part of any financial service, be it a bank or intermediary like PayPal. I am not confident they have their technical or even service structure in place. They better start cracking because according to their online documents, they are going live summer 2005!

I wish them the best, but if I was back in with the VCs, I would scream and run the other direction.

Or it could mean that they are ill prepared for the task they set out to do.

I would love to agree with you there is the money but unfortunatelly that is not the case. Huge banks invest money in almost everything. Huge banks won't tell if the La Jolla, California CitiBank branch investment manager put in $100 or the corporate HQ dropped $10million. you won't know it until their first filling, which won't happen unless they go public.How does "eBay" sign up for Greenzap? There is no corporate signup structure defined anywhere on any information from Greenzap. I grant you that several well known "eBay"-ers signed up for it.

Here is an other interesting historical reference. Remember the Whig Party of the 1800s? They were AGAINST something. Not FOR. Guess what happened when the things that they were against shifted direction...

PayPal simply needs to make the changes to recoup the lost customer faith, and greenzap (if it is legit) is gone. This is where the existing momentum comes in.

but if the $1 per transaction is < paypals cost per transaction they could make their mark in the payment transfer realm

well, if you had 25 dollars in your account just for signing up, you have to spend it somehow, when you spend it, regardless if you ever see it someone pays a transaction cost. Its almost always the company or person receiving it. So no matter way they get some of their money back.

Its not a bad way to get people to start signing up really.

I remember Paypal used to do the same thing. :)

I love the way the bash on paypal, there are other online proivders that act like paypal...

I cannot believe for a moment any LARGE portion of the paypal users (10%+) are actually having problems. Considering I've been using paypal for 3 years now with no problems.

1 dollar per transaction ownz on paypal. This will save me a lot of money, and make things easier. I cant wait till release. THey also are not as strict about getting a credit card for your account to use off line too.

They definately have the potential to take on paypal.