Ask HN: How do the growing number of marketplaces handle outgoing payments?

10 points

14 years ago

There seems to be an increase in startups that have two sided payment processing needs. That is to say they collect money from one party and pay it out to another. Just a few examples include Groupon, AirBNB, Etsy, Freelancer, Tippr, TaskRabbit, Uber and oDesk. All affiliate networks, advertising networks and other crowdsourcing marketplaces would fit this description as well.

Getting a merchant account is a hassle in itself (just to accept incoming payments). Dealing with outgoing payments via bank transfer, cheque, PayPal, Moneybookers, Amazon and others only adds to the complexity. Let alone on an international scale.

Are there any startups out there offering a service layer that makes the integration of all of these options as simple as a few lines of code? The upside of this would be that the provider only deals with one central point of contact, their users can choose the most convenient method for payout, that they'd gain instant global reach and have access to an extra level of fraud prevention (screening of users, cross-site analysis, etc.)

What startups are currently in a phase that could benefit from this? I'd imagine this would be startups in a stage of relatively fast growth and users all around the world.

[Note: a relevant article from Nathan at AirBNB http://nerds.airbnb.com/do-it-yourself-ach-direct-deposit]

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