Friday, August 03, 2007

Amazon 'Flexible' Payments launches...

Amazon.com launched Flexible Payments web service this week.

It's already on Reddit -- with plenty of people welcoming it. Like people say over there, Amazon's track record of extremely easy to use web services API should definitely give Google and Paypal worries with this launch.

Why am I blogging about it? And is it really that cool?

Well -- the primary reason I am blogging about it is that this was some of the best things I was involved with at Amazon. Over a period of about a year and a half that I was involved with Amazon FPS, we conceived the product and built a truly solid team in India to develop this product.

And yes, it is really that cool. The Payment Instructions component of the API give you, the developer, unparalleled control over the transactions that follow. Using these instructions you can describe a whole negotiation between multiple parties. Each participant in the transaction can have their own set of instructions -- these are rules that have to match against each other in order for the transaction to go through. Can you imagine the possibilities? You can choose who not to do business with, what payment methods to accept (only accept direct debit, get the fees down), set minimum amounts, etc., etc.

Among all the services Amazon's rolled out, this one is probably the most complex in its interface to the developers. The world's been raving about and using S3 (and so does Jambool). Amazon FPS is the other service that I am sure is going to get lots of positive buzz. And deservedly so, even if it is a somewhat biased view.

Kudos to a lot of people and dear friends at Amazon who've brought FPS to light.

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