Icing PayPal: How We Did It | Hacker News Reader

Icing PayPal: How We Did It

blog.wepay.com

160 pointssophmonroe32 comments

What I've learned from this: Calculated publicity stunts done by massive corporations are no less endearing to me than calculated publicity stunts done by small y-combinator startups.

I look at this publicity stunt with the same yawn+rolleyes as when Richard Branson takes his clothes off or Donald Trump insults Rosie O'Donnel.

It's good business, I guess, but it's ham-handed and doesn't move me.

My guess is that if you'd already heard of WePay before yesterday, you weren't the target audience for this publicity stunt.

I totally get that it was successful stunt that got them attention. Any attention is good attention and all that. That wasn't my point though.

The idea is excellent, but the execution could have been better. I don't want a financial company I use to have a plan revolving around running away from a security guard. Had they done some social engineering or even obtained some sort of permit through their lawyers to leave the ice there, I would have been much more impressed. After all, who can say no to an up and coming ice sculptor wanting to display his work outside a hotel for a day? Still though, great idea.

Yeah that's my problem as well. I love a good prank but this only looked good in a staged photo and some kind press coverage. Otherwise its just some guys with a not visibly big lump of ice being told to move on by security and going. It just feels awkward. Another idea: free icey stand. You have to do something where you don't just get chased off by security, you want paypal to either have to suck it up or move you on with lawyers.

we're a startup with a lot on our plate and this was a fun side project. we didn't spend weeks planning this, just a night.

I know the criticism is unfair, which is why I tried to couch it. :)

This approach to business feels a bit amateur and lacking in class to me. I realise there has been a fair amount of publicity after this episode, and maybe I am 'old school' but it just doesn't feel right.

I'm probably not old school but I agree. This kind of thing may be cute for a business in a...lesser(?) market but I don't think it sends to right money for someone dealing with my money, credit cards, revenue to do so.

http://home.snafu.de/tilman/mozilla/stomps.html

D'oh.

And from the article:

    "Not the sort of thing we'd publicize
    on purpose, 'cause it is a little childish...but
    they started it!"

    "It seems awfully immature to resort to 
    fraternity tactics to draw attention,"

My comment above was my opinion (hence the "I think"), and I think a valid one.

Thanks for the link though. Good read.

P. T. Barnum, now he was old school! He never shied away from using ridiculous stunts like this to get attention. He would write newspapers under pseudonyms railing at his own products to get noticed. He once hired a begger to place 4 bricks at various points on the sidewalk outside his famous museum. The begger would take a 5th brick and walk around on a circuit, replacing each brick with the brick in his hand. Every hour, he would brandish a ticket and walk through all the galleries of the museum. Soon, he'd generated enough curiosity that people were buying tickets to the museum just to follow him around. Some were even staying inside, captivated by what they found on display.

Foolish stunts are as old school as it gets.

"The Fabulous Showman" bio of P.T. Barnum. Essential business reading.

I want to understand why this is good marketing and who has moved from Paypal to Wepay. The services are very different, Wepay seems to cater to a tiny percentage of American Paypal users, it's like Hackernews competing with Reddit. Can anyone clarify if this is a legitimate "move to Wepay from paypal!" thing or if it's just a way to get attention, not necessarily customers?

i think this was more about getting press and making people aware of wepay's existence. most people who fit into their niche are likely not aware of them.

Please, correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think their niche overlaps too much with paypal customers. So why would they market themselves as a direct competitor to paypal? Why would they, given this premise, advertise to paypal customers at all?

If you read the whole story you will get the impression they are paypal competitors - that is, unless you visit their website and read comments here. You will find out they are nothing like paypal and they won't replace it.

They're riding paypal disappointment tide cough diaspora cough yet they don't offer viable replacement.

There's been a lot of negative opinions about paypal coming from this very community but, in my opinion, if they position themselves as paypal competitor a lot of people will be disappointed in their offering right now.

Do you think it's a good way to market themselves? Or should they focus on their core audience via other channels? Or maybe paypal customers are indeed wepay's customers in the making?

they are not a direct competitor. their offering is not equal to paypal's. they only do a few things, but try to do them well.

the services they provide are similar to some things that people are doing with paypal.

Have you used the service? I've been using it for close to a year, and I love it.

I've been using it to manage sponsor payments for Hackers and Founders for some time. It's wonderful, easy and simple to use.

And, the reason that they are building this is because PayPal sucks.

Man I would love to use WePay, but from their website they don't seem to do the same thing as PayPal at all. Can you send any WePay user money via email?

They've stated that they consider themselves a competitor to paypal so i can only imagine that eventually they will start to offer services like this in the future. They are only just getting started.

WePay lets you collect money (people can pay you with credit card or bank account) and then you can send money that you've collected to whoever you want. So you could, if you wanted, put money in your group and then send it easily to whoever.

So... "No."

Yes. If they are part of your "group", then you can transfer money back and forth. It takes an extra step, but it's definitely possible.

I hate PayPal with a passion. We've been using it for 3 years as our online payment processing and every 3 months or so they do something that causes us hassle like an auto refund for no valid reason. I've considered changing - but then just think other payment processors are probably just as bad? Or are there really good guys out there?

Having used PayPal to process thousands of transactions for almost 8 years now, I've never once seen PayPal issue a refund for "no valid reason". You will always receive an email outlining why the funds are being placed on hold pending an investigation. You will also have the opportunity to respond to that investigation by providing whatever correspondence, log files, etc. you feel are pertinent to the investigation.

I Have also worked with many other payment providers (2checkout, authorize.net, AlertPay, WorldPay, FastSpring) and they all do the same thing.

Does WePay process payments themselves, or do they use a third party payment processor?

Can you use WePay to automatically charge for premium usage of a web app (one time and/or subscription)?

I wonder what the charge would have been if the police got involved. Littering?

Not likely. The evidence would have evaporated by the time it went to court. :-P

Perhaps they would be charged with disturbing the peace or disorderly conduct. Most localities have catch-all ordinances that police can use in these situations.

What image did the one dollar bills form inside of the ice? I feel like there is something there I'm missing.

I wasn't being sarcastic it looked like maybe there was a 2nd joke in the arrangement of the fives vs the ones. Oh well.

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