Google’s long-awaited payments system was finally launched this week under the name Google Checkout rather than the much-anticipated Gbuy. The service will be offered to existing advertisers only, at least for now, and Google has announced an attractive incentive to stimulate take-up. Says Wired:

Merchants won’t have to pay processing fees on purchases totaling 10 times their advertising volume with Google. That means an advertiser spending $20,000 per month at Google wouldn’t pay any processing fees on purchases totaling $200,000. After the spending threshold is exceeded, Google will charge merchants a fee equal to 2 percent of the purchase amount, plus 20 cents per transaction. PayPal’s processing fees range between 1.9 percent and 2.9 percent of the purchase amount plus 30 cents per transaction. The model that has proven successful so far. PayPal handled $27.5 billion in online transactions last year, generating $1 billion in revenue for the company. It currently has about 105 million users worldwide.

Update: the official post is here.