boxless

I use a lot of google services but it’s true I haven’t used Google Checkout till now. If you are from Bulgaria and try to buy something from it you will wonder why Bulgaria is not in the drop-down list. There are so many countries in that list and I was ashamed for the absence of my own. If you try to use google services like Google Apps for Your Domain, you have option to buy a custom domain through google checkout or to buy it on your own. It wasn’t a problem to set it separately but I decided to look further why google has decided not to support our market.

I wrote mail to google and here is the answer:

Re: [#103320811] [Google Checkout] why it is not available for Bulgaria?

Hello,

Thank you for your email.

Google Checkout is available to shoppers in a number of locations; please
visit http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=48115 to
view a list of those currently offered.

Keep in mind that while you may have a billing and shipping address
outside the United States, all orders placed through Google Checkout are
charged in US dollars.

Google Checkout may not be available in every country right away but we’ll
certainly try our best! To make sure our buyers from across the globe have
a wonderful experience with Google Checkout, we make every effort to plan,
test, and hone our system to meet the needs of that country before
release.

We’re unable to comment on the timing of Google Checkout availability in
additional countries, but we appreciate your interest. We look forward to
offering more options in the near future.

Please feel free to reply to this email if you have any additional
questions.

Sincerely,

Michael
The Google Checkout Team

Now I realized that google has no roots in Bulgaria. A little info about Bulgaria - I think Bulgaria is quite used to google and knows it almost from the beginning. It’s not a big country but it is a member of the European Union and Nato. The credit cards are more spread than some of the countries in the google checkout list. Google has no one employee in our country. Maybe thats why they are afraid to put on wheels the google checkout service. You can see there is an open position Bulgaria Consultant - Sofia at google. They are searching a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a man with established network of contacts within internet/advertising/government communities. If you think you fit, please apply.

I think the missing roots of google here and the fact that we have good IT potential scares them to set this money service for Bulgaria. But if they create a team here to work for them I am sure they can use this potential on their side.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 25th, 2007 at 4:25 pm and is filed under google. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.