> maybe they'll buy up PornHub and add PornHub subscriptions to the stack whether you want it or not, just to make your recurring monthly payments a bit stickier
Purely from a payment processing point of view, unless Google wants to fight Visa, MasterCard and other institutions this will never happen. There are a lot of restrictions around content and payment processors that you would assume is covered by freedom of speech that in a practical sense isn't.
Obviously this is an opportunity for Google to get into the business of making more payment apps. They're way behind the curve on that compared to their music and chat services, only having two at this point (Google Pay and Tez).
There is an obvious hole right there that I'm sure they could fill with a blockchain or anonymous gift cards. Or both! They could be the leading service provider for using the blockchain to verify gift cards in a distributed ledger and use it as middleware to convert gift cards into Google Points. What are Google Points good for? Anything cash is good for! So buying ad placements (on Google), music subscriptions (provided by Google), extra cloud storage (in the Google Cloud of course, 'scuse me, Google One), stock (in GOOG) and groceries (via Google Express).
Or you know, they could just inherit whatever agreements PornHub has with their existing payment processor that covers PornHub Premium on their way to reinventing Prime. That isn't as sexy as making 5 more payment apps though. Definitely not as sticky and not enough blockchain.
There are always holes in the market and Google is always writing Apps to fill those holes. This is an effort to achieve maximum market penetration and their go to strategy these past few years has been to try a more diverse approach so that they can fill all the holes with their own Apps and Services.
Freedom of speech does not cover corporations, I really don't get why that is still being brought up.
Credit card companies don't want to be held responsible if your CC payment is being used for the sexual exploitation of people. They don't want to be associated with revenge porn, etc. I'm sure there's a puritan reasoning in there too somewhere, but TBF I doubt that's the primary reason given how big the porn market would be for companies like that.
I imagine that's a part of it but also the risk of chargeback is greater with adult content. People get buyers remorse at the exact moment you think they would and reverse the charge
Tried to start a site that wasn't for but did allow adult content and every payment processor closed their shutters on us
Freedom of speech SHOULD cover corporations. Especially in situations where an effective duopoly has frightening amount of international control that ultimately drawves most nation states, as is the case with Visa and MasterCard.
Visa and MC should be broken up, or at the very least regulated to the extent they can't cough without regulatory oversight.
It does, the same way it covers everyone else: corporations are actors who have freedom of speech, a fundamental component of which is the ability to choose what speech they will and will not participate in, either as initiator or intermediary.
With bank transfers, no one except law regulates what you can pay for. With EC, same. With VISA/MasterCard/PayPal, selling cuban cigars in Germany from a German company to a German customer gets you banned.
Purely from a payment processing point of view, unless Google wants to fight Visa, MasterCard and other institutions this will never happen. There are a lot of restrictions around content and payment processors that you would assume is covered by freedom of speech that in a practical sense isn't.