Google Pay adds new features

FACTS

• Last November, Google unveiled a major overhaul of its Google Pay application.

• Today, the Tech giant is making a new update that brings Google Pay closer to its stated goals. It now integrates partners for loyalty offers, the possibility to store your transport tickets, and the first functionalities related to Personal Finance Management within the Plex account.

• Save money via partner offers
  • To do this, Google has partnered with Safeway and Target, to make it easier to find offers, promotions and good deals available each week in more than 500 stores in the US.
  • These offers will now be centralized within Google Pay. By enabling geolocation, users will be able to find available offers closest to their home.

• Paying for rides on public transportation
  • Google Pay already supports the purchase and use of transit pass in more than 80 cities in the United States. Chicago and San Francisco, as well as many smaller cities, will soon be added to this coverage.
  • A "Ride Transit" button will allow users to buy tickets or recharge their pass directly from the application.

• Manage your finances and better understand your expenses
  • Google Pay also takes on the appearance of an aggregator by offering an overview of its finances via the new "Insights" tab. It allows you to check your account balances, view upcoming recurring bills and payments, track your spending, search transactions by keyword and receive alerts for certain transactions.

CHALLENGES

• Boost the use of its wallet to retrieve data: whether it is by allowing the purchase and storage of transport tickets, by making deals available or by providing intelligent summaries of spending, Google's objective is to encourage the use of Google Pay, which thus becomes an everyday app. This growing use will allow it to collect more data on its users and thus start a virtuous circle by enriching its value proposition of personalizing finances.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Google Pay's expermentations in India on monetizing transactional data are also materializing.

• Google is now starting to bring partners into its all-data model. Safeway and Target are the first to join the partner track around deals, but they should quickly be joined by others, across all sectors.