On Monday i.e.18th of September, Google will be joining the digital payment bandwagon in India with the launch of its payment app ‘Tez’, designed specifically for Indian Market.
The news as first reported on ‘THE KEN’, Indian business blog and the app will likely be launched at a press conference on 18 September in New Delhi by Caesar Sengupta, vice-president, Next Billion Users, Google.
The app is probably going to feature a digital wallet where customers can store money and has been integrated with India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to allow for money transfers at no cost, and an easy checkout system. It’s likewise said to support credit cards and third-party wallets like Paytm and Mobikwik.
It will be available both on the desktop, as a Chrome widget, and as an app on Google’s Play Store or will be pre-installed on the operating system and introduced as part of future updates to the operating system.
Tez is largely fashioned on the Google’s global product—Android Pay, earlier called Google Wallet.
Looking at India’s growing digital commerce and payments space as a huge source of revenue, the effort bodes well for Google enabling the search giant to dive deep into payments.
Right now India’s digital payments ecosystem is intensifying; with a 57% market share, Alibaba-backed Paytm presently dominates in a market swarmed with various mobile wallet players like MobiKwik, FreeCharge, Tencent-backed Hike Messenger, Oxigen, Citrus Pay, ItzCash, Phone Pe, PayU, Jio Money and Ola Money.
Global companies like Truecaller and Uber have also entered the payment space in India while Facebook-owned WhatsApp is working to grab a hold on India’s growing mobile wallet space.
In such a situation, it may just be the right time for Google to launch its India- specific payment app ‘Tez’. Let’s see what comes on Monday!
