Safa Rashtchy released a note today (PDF only, no link) saying his sources are confirming the Journal’s story, and reminding us that he earlier noted that Google may launch a listings service as well.
• We had noted earlier this year that we believe Google is likely to introduce both a listings product (similar to “Craigslist” but much more powerful) and a C2C/B2C transaction and payment platform. If Google Wallet indeed launches this year, it will be initially aimed as an additional service to over 200,000 Google merchants, many of whom also use eBay.
• Google will of course be facing significant hurdles to compete with the well-established PayPal, which has more than 72M users. However, we note that when Google entered the paid listing business, it also had to catch up with a much more established Overture, which it eventually replaced as the number one provider of paid search listings.