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Paul Glazowski via Mashable! shared by 5 people

Amazon and PayPal have long not been partners in commerce. Of course, the reason for this most oft stated is basic competition. As you might know, Amazon introduced last year its Amazon Payments system for use at Amazon.com and partner sites.

Still, the idea of broadening the Amazon Payments business greatly piques the interest of analysts. One more party to voice enthusiasm for a larger payment network to span a vast supply of Internet commerce Web sites is Derek Brown of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald. As quoted by Eric Savitz of Barrons, Brown seemed this week to increase the potency of that lingering flame, saying that an “Amazon Payments” system a la PayPal in its potentially extensive reach, is perhaps a very worthwhile avenue to venture down, due to its intimate and very refined knowledge of online retail in all its limits and possibilities. Brown argues Amazon had “long ago demonstrated that it understands (perhaps better than any company) the needs/wants of online retailers.”

PayPal is no doubt the reigning leader of payment transfer services born on the Web. Its reach is quite extraordinary, and it continues to reap the financial benefits in kind. So much so that its success drew Google into the fold in 2006 with its own competitor, dubbed Checkout, beginning with the US market. But while Google Checkout has made a name for itse@lf, it has not achieved ubiquity as eBay’s property managed to do. This naturally leaves open a fairly great opportunity for Amazon. With its lasting mark made on the online retail market, Amazon is most certainly positioned to offer PayPal a significant challenge.

My sense is that exercising its heft is in Amazon’s interest at this point in time. The company’s place atop the heap in online retail is definitely advantageous for the pursuit of an extension to its business, and, as with its Associates program, the world of third-party Web sites are the group best able to help Amazon make the most of its core assets - all while offering consumers another way to pay, as it were. The company doesn’t absolutely need to invest in the payment space to such a degree as is being speculated. But there’s little chance that it will encounter much difficulty in the way of user adoption if it so chooses to make the jump, discounting the fact that one marketplace will be a no-go for an ambitious Amaz^on Payments push. It’s name: eBay.

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