September 19, 2011, 8:30 pm Google Wallet Makes its Debut By NICK BILTON and CLAIRE CAIN MILLER NY Times
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/google-wallet-makes-its-debut/?pagemode=print Google introduced to the public its long-awaited solution for eventually replacing credit cards with mobile phones. The product, called Google Wallet, stores people’s credit card information, coupons and discount cards on Google Android smartphones and allows people to pay for products with a swipe of the phone. The merchants needs a technology called near-field communication, or N.F.C., which enables short-range wireless communications between a phone and an N.F.C reader. But don’t throw away your credit cards and wallet just yet. Google Wallet comes with several caveats. To use the new feature you will need a Sprint Nexus S 4G phone with built-in N.F.C. technology, a Citibank account and a MasterCard credit card. Google said it hoped to eventually add Visa, Discover and American Express to its wallet software. It is not clear when these credit cards can be used. Google introduced Google Wallet in May, but until now, only employees of Google and other companies involved with the app have been able to use it. Google will focus at first on signing up merchants and users in New York and San Francisco, but Sprint Nexus S 4G users will be able to use it in other cities at 150,000 merchants that accept MasterCard’s PayPass, Google said. Google is just one of dozens of companies competing to replace plastic credit cards with a digital alternative. Technology companies including Square, Venmo and PayPal are trying to offer similar products and larger banks are working with phone manufactures to ensure they are not pushed out of the mobile banking race. One of the hold-ups to making cellphone payments mainstream has been that people can just as easily reach into their pockets for a credit card as they can for a phone. Google will overcome that by offering deals like Google Offers as part of Google Wallet, said Osama Bedier, Google’s vice president of payments. Another hold-up has been the sheer number of players involved in offering mobile payments — mobile phone carriers, banks, credit card issuers, payment networks and technology companies — especially since each wants a percentage of the transactions. But Google has moved relatively quickly because it does not earn money from Google Wallet transactions. It only makes money if merchants choose to advertise to Google Wallet customers through AdWords or Google Offers. For Google, the wallet is a way to jump from the Web to the offline world and provide a way for consumers and advertisers to use Google even when they aren’t online. “We see the lines are blurring between online and offline, and our business can no longer be just about online activity,” Mr. Bedier said. “Consumers don’t see their world as online or offline, they see it as a continuum, and we think there’s a huge opportunity here to address their offline advertising needs.” -- ================================================= George Antunes Voice (713) 743-3923 Associate Professor Fax (713) 743-3927 Political Science Mail: antunes at uh dot edu University of Houston Houston, TX 77204-3011 _______________________________________________ Medianews mailing list [email protected] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
