Not Germany, but here in The Netherlands the banks just developed an online payment system together 18 years ago, and everyone uses that.
Which means that everyone uses PayPal since it's the solution that you know is going to be accepted everywhere instead of having to juggle between 10 different services.
At least in the Netherlands this is not true at all. Everyone here uses iDeal, and if that doesnt work its back to a SEPA bank transfer
Giropay is some kind of federalized solution where you enter your BIC on a landing page and get redirected to the interface of your local bank to complete the purchase.
It isn't well supported, except at some unexpected sites like Ali Express.
Because banks generally don't support all features, only the ones they already used to support.
My bank, for example, does not support person-to-person transfers, only online payment at web shops.
Every time I need to send mail I’m jealous of that whole “write 9 digits in a grid to serve as a stamp” system.
You buy a code that you write down in the location where normally the stamp would be.
Because the interpretation of cartel law and the banking structure makes that complicated.
They created "giropay" which is quite complicated as a dealer has to pick a bank to contract with and they get different rates and stuff as they couldn't simply create a shared company running it or something ...
The main problem in Germany is that banks "for the masses" (oversimplified) are "state owned" or cooperatives. Both are organized on a city level. Both are notorious for not cooperating. Plus the state owned banks usually have politicians at the top (E.g. the major of the city the bank is in).
For a system that works across Germany you would need a high level of cooperation.
In the 90s when I was a Sparkasse ("state owned") customer studying in Baden Wurttemberg but having my Bank in Bavaria, I needed to go to Bavaria to get money and account statements every time, the Sparkasse in Baden Wurttemberg would not cooperate with the one in Bavaria.
Not sure, it might be an outcome of federalism which is (was) a way to prevent the 4th Reich.
For instance if the Cash Group banks came together behind a mobile and online payment solution, the Sparkasse would need to follow suit.
Lessons learned: Technical leadership is nice, but don't think once you are ahead, you'll stay ahead.
They were more secure (no surprise there). The lack of security was known, but the risk was with the vendor who generally accepted it as cost of doing business. With the more secure EC cards like with the new-ish chip-enhanced CC, the (lower, remaining) risk is with the customer. Not sure, whether that is 'better'.