During the Google for India 2018 event, Google has announced that its India-specific payments service Tez will be rebranded to be known as Google Pay. The move thus brings Google’s global payment service to India which is currently available in 20 countries across the world.
Google Tez was unveiled in India last year as a bank-based payments service, soon after which it added the ability to pay utility bills and buy Xiaomi products through the app. As part of a major expansion, Google Tez will from now inwards be called Google Pay and will thus feature an all-around payments App for users in India.
The rebranding not only unifies Google’s payments services but will also be made to be widely accepted across 15,000 retail stores in India. This means customers will be able to use Google Pay while booking flights on Goibibo, getting movie tickets from Bookmyshow or even use the same for buying phones from Xiaomi. Google has partnered with RedBus and Uber for in-app payment service and will also roll out offline support when paying at exclusive outlets like FBB, Big Bazaar and e-zone.
Pushing beyond retailing, Google will also offer micro-loans and has already collaborated with HDFC, ICICI, Federal Bank and Kotak Mahindra for pre-approved loads that will offer instant loan to customers within “a matter of seconds” through the Google Pay app. The Mountain View company also plans to Google Pay to other regions with some features from the older Tez app expected to be rolled out to the global Google Pay users.
In a year since its launch, Google Tez had reached as much as 55 million downloads through the Play Store with over 750 million transactions conducted annually.