07 Feb 10 PayPal Collapsed for India, Now What?

It has not been a pleasant February for Indian freelancers, bloggers, online marketers, and affiliate sales person, PayPal has stopped sending payments to India. Well, they claim they have just stopped personal payment to India, but in reality, almost all types of payments—personal, services, invoiced, etc., — have been blocked by PayPal. When consulted, they say it has some issues with its “business partners” and “credit card companies” (as told to me by inarticulate customer care representative), which according to him will get fixed with seven days time.

Like countless others, I too doubt the authenticity of this claim. And like others, I too cannot help and reflect on the future of outsourcing to India?

Who runs the show?

It was a hard pill to swallow, but PayPal has proved that it is not the countless clients, freelance exchanges, job boards, blogging jobs, and small IT jobs that are running the show not what driving the freelance economy in India; it is PayPal that does. We are dependent on this company, and freelancing in India depends a great deal on the whims and fancies of PayPal.

It is PayPal that runs the show.

What needs to be done?

It is high time for us to look for alternative. There are quite a few, but none of them are half as good as PayPal is, yeah I am confessing this, though reluctantly. Moneybookers, Alterpay, 2CO, Xoom, Wire transfer, Western Union, eGold, etc., are there, but they are either too complex or not at all good.

We need to form an Indian equivalent of PayPal to safeguard ourselves from PayPal and other companies like that. An Indian online payment processing system that works according to the guidelines of Reserve Bank of India (Indian central bank) should be formed.

Confusion is not a nice place to be in. It is dark adn dingy in here, and it feels very bad.