On September 18th, Google was going to launch a digital payment application called ‘Tez’ powered by UPI in India. UPI was a payment system which simplifies the instant fund transfer in between two bank accounts on the mobile platform. UPI was launched by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and was regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Google disappointed about the previous failures
Previously Google has launched different payment applications, but faced disappointments.
- In the year 2011, Google’s stint with the payment services, and they launched Google Wallet, which is a payment platform which was supported debit/credit cards & it will enabled the online payment of different purchases and also peer-to-peer transfers and payments
- Last year, Google has discontinued Wallet Card feature. Google Wallet’s failure has been endorsed to various factors, being the business model, & reluctance of banks in order to share data with Google.
- Android Pay has been launched by Google in the year 2015, which was replaced by debit/card transactions, but relied on Near Field Communication (NFC) as a mode of payment.
- But Android Pay was also struggling hard, in order to maintain momentum, & there was a huge gap of 75% in between Android Pay users & Apple Pay users.
In India, various mobile applications are trending and are playing a very active role such as Hike Messenger, MobiKwik, FreeCharge, Oxigen, Citrus Pay, Phone Pe, PayU, ItzCash, Jio Money and Ola Money. In these applications Paytm was gathering 57% massive share in payments niche. So hence now it will be much interesting to observe how the Google carves a niche for themselves.
With major changes and innovative vision Google developed ‘’Tez’’
But now Google has decided to give another try, by implementing major changes with an innovative vision by developing ‘’Tez’’ payment application.
When comes into in detail about Google’s own payment app which was going to be launched on September 18th. Google haven’t revealed much details about this application, but based on the hinted information this application was:
- Faster
- Multi-layered’ payment app,
- Which works on both mobile as well as desktop.
- Google Tez will not only work with UPI, but can also support the existing mobile wallets which includes Paytm, Mobikwik etc.
Initially Ken (pay wall) reported about this new payment app from Google, called Tez ‘’Google, Alphabet Inc’s subsidiary, will make an entry into India’s fast growing and super-competitive digital payment ecosystem.
As per the reports, Caesar Sengupta, the vice-president, Next Billion Users, Google will be going to launch Google Tez, may work like Android Pay. The simple reply from the Google about the application was “Because fast is better than slow”
Features and highlights gathered from news portals about Tez
- Tez application particularly designed and customized for the Indian users & Indian conditions.
- It will support all the regional languages in India. In Hindi ‘Tez’ word meaning was Fast.
- Tez was a multi-layered application which supports all existing mobile wallets which includes Paytm, MobiKwik, Freecharge & others.
- This application will support by UPI payment interface, which was directed managed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)
- Tez can be pre-installed in all Android phones and can be downloaded through Google Play-store and can be accessed by PC’s also.
- This application can be used for the eCommerce purchases & over-the-top apps also.
Existing players and competition
UPI-based payment services are supported by various mobile messaging platforms which includes WeChat & Hike Messenger. The Ministry of Electronics and IT said, “There will be a 3-fold increase of digital payments infrastructure in India by the end of 2017 with almost 5 million electronic PoS machines”.
The other big player which are going to join in India’s growing digital payment market was Facebook-owned WhatsApp. WhatsApp was in news for working towards UPI-based interface. Based on the media reports, the leading messaging platform was already in talks with NPCI & few banks will able to facilitate financial transactions through UPI. ‘’WhatsApp was giving a perfect shape to its plans towards bank-to-bank transfer by using the UPI system’’ according to the information in the blog website “WABetaInfo”.
