Google Wallet has struck up a partnership with payment processor WePay and added about 200,000 online stores to support Google wallet. WePay facilitates transactions between merchants and payers on their platform, invoicing applications, marketplaces, and donation platforms like GoFundMe. It also provides payment processing for some 200,000 small and medium online businesses through its relationship with InvoiceASAP.
WePay announced the partnership saying- “We think it’s great that the two most dominant players in mobile, Google and Apple, are investing in mobile wallet solutions that help address the very real usability problem around payments. Today, we’re thrilled to announce our first integration with a mobile wallet — WePay now supports Google Wallet Instant Buy”. WePay is now integrated into Google wallet’s Instant Buy API. The two- tap Instant Buy System allows users to make transactions without revealing sensitive information to third parties.
“This integration with WePay will now expand its reach and allow us to support small business owners through WePay’s hosted payment offering, making it easier for them to accept payments online and on mobile devices,” Steve Klebe, Business Development, Payments for Google told VentureBeat.
Google Wallet, although launched in 2013, is looking to expand its use of API to more mobile devices. According to Wepay, mobile devices account for 60 percent of Internet traffic, but less than 20 percent of online transactions. They attribute this to the cumbersome process of entering credit card info into the device and most people abandon the process halfway through.
WePay said that they would be making more such announcements in the future as they want to make it as easy as possible for any online platform to take advantage of mobile wallet technologies.
“We started with Google Wallet because Android is shipped on the majority of smart phones globally, and Google Wallet can be used both in native applications and on the mobile web. That means it currently serves the most users in the most contexts, and that makes for an excellent first step.”- Rich Aberman, WePay co- founder and COO wrote on the company blog.
Digital wallets came into the spotlight after the launch of Apple Pay last year. Google introduced it’s digital payment solution for android users to capitalise on it. Paypal however remains the preferred digital payment platform on the internet.
Google is also touching all bases with mobile payments. Some recent reports suggest that Google is negotiating to acquire Softcard, the mobile-payments system launched by mobile operators Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile in 2010. All three of Softcard’s backers blocked customers from installing Google Wallet on their smartphones when Google launched its own payments system in 2011.
(image source: denebola2025)
