>>>A Bank, is a Bank, is a Bank....CheckFree just took your banks paper CheckBook and digitized it....and CheckFree is taking on the postal responsibilities by digitizing the biller mail....to feed their digital CheckBook.
As a biller myself <g>, your point is crystal clear. CheckFree is the FedEx, the UPS, or the USPS of internet bill payment and presentment...with one huge difference. The infrastructure to support shipping packages from coast to coast requires large expenditures of capital (e.g., airplanes), and a huge employment force to facilitate the movement from coast to coast...while the Internet bill presentment and payment paradigm requires a smaller capital expenditure, a smaller work force, which can be scaled to support EBPP for the entire country (i.e, Genesis). IMHO, if FedEx and UPS are profitable, then CheckFree will be very very profitable.
In addition, the barriers to entry are significant, as is evident in the failure of Intuit Services Corp. to turn a profit, and the time that TP is taking starting up even with the combined forces of MSFT, CITI, and FDC.
Sam (IMVHO). |
