Google this year plans to offer an electronic-payment service that could help the company diversify its revenue and may heighten competition with eBay's PayPal unit, the Wall Street Journal has reported. Exact details of the search company's planned service are not known, the report said, but quoted people familiar with the matter as saying it could have similarities with PayPal, which allows consumers to pay for purchases on web sites by funding electronic-payment accounts from their credit cards or checking accounts. A Google spokesman declined to comment.

For Google, a payment service could represent a significant expansion beyond online advertising, which generated 99 per cent of its $US3.2 billion ($4.12 billion) in revenue last year, the paper said. Online-payment providers typically take a commission on each transaction.

News source: Australian IT