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Google announced this morning two strategic partnerships with Visa and MasterCard aimed at expanding the reach of its mobile payments service, Android Pay.
Google announced this morning two strategic partnerships with Visa and MasterCard aimed at expanding the reach of its mobile payments service, Android Pay.
Paying using your smartphone isn’t exactly new but its first incarnations were of course limited to paying for apps and digital content. Mobile payment opened the doors for that to cross over to the physical realm, paying for physical goods, whether online or in person.
While in-store purchases are the most sensationalized aspect of mobile payment systems, buying online is still perhaps the most common use case. It also happens to often be the most laborious, involving multiple steps, different payment methods, and everything in between or a combination of those.
Platforms like Android Pay aim to reduce all of that to just step, either placing your finger on a sensor or entering a PIN code. With this new partnership with Visa and MasterCard, Google is aiming to embrace all web purchases made through smartphones, at least those using Visa Checkout and Masterpass. Considering these are two of the biggest payment solutions, that’s going to be quite a lot.
Google plans to roll out this support early next year, which should give merchants ample time to prepare for a flood of successful purchases. Or so Google wants them to believe. Lowering the barrier for purchases, in its opinion, will naturally translate to improved sales, something we’ll have to wait for next year to prove.
Agencies/Canadajournal
