Google pushes further into mobile payments for developing markets with "Tez"
- The concept of frictionless payments has really picked up with the rise of Uber meaning you don't need a wallet to take a taxi, and Amazon Echo making a purchase as easy as talking
- But there's still a gap for all of those day to day interactions where transactions aren't conveniently conducted via an app or device
- Paytm and GrabPay have brought (almost) frictionless mobile payments to India and SEA respectively and are gaining ground at the bottom end of the financial pyramid
- We've also seen a few Financial Regulators in SEA open up P2P mobile payments via a mobile number
- Google Tez has taken this concept to the next level, allowing transfer without the need to exchange any details at all - it can beam via a high pitched sound from phone to phone
- While being even more frictionless and easier to use will be a tightly contested battlefield - it would seem the eventual winners will be the ones who can tie up the customers payment ecosystem into a single platform
- Expect to see this play out in developing markets and work its way up the pyramid
Original post: https://9to5google.com/2017/09/18/google-tez-mobile-payments-india/ Google is no stranger to offering payment services, but its traditional offerings don’t work perfectly in developing regions. Today, the company has unveiled Tez, a new payment app for users in India that can transfer money between two users without any special hardware required.Where many mobile payment apps use NFC chips, Tez skips that since quite a large portion of smartphone users in India don’t have NFC on their devices. Instead, it uses ultrasonic audio to pair two devices together and transfer money.Ultrasonic audio works on just about every device, both Android and iOS included. The audio is inaudible to the human ear and can quickly connect the two devices to negate the need for transferring any information such as banking details, email addresses, or even phone numbers. Simply pair two devices and transfer the money.
Use Cash Mode to send money instantly to another Tez user nearby without needing to share private details like your bank account or phone number. Now you can transact with the simplicity of cash, but with added security.
Tez connects directly to a user’s bank account, ditching the need to refill it at any point and instead just drawing directly from that account. Google says that Tez works with the United Payments Interface, meaning it will work with any bank in the region that supports UPI.
With Tez, you can pay directly from your bank account, which means your money is safe with your bank and you’ll continue to earn interest. There’s no need to open a separate account or worry about reloading wallets.
Tez uses UPI (Unified Payments Interface) and works with all major banks, including our partners: Axis, HDFC Bank, ICICI and State Bank of India.
https://youtu.be/LN2F0ae--WEGoogle has also built a few other features into Tez beyond just sending money. For one, there’s Tez Shield, a security feature which is always active and designed to prevent fraud or hacking. There are also “Scratch Cards” which offer all Tez users the chance to win up to ₹1,000 per week, or ₹100,000 on “Lucky Sundays.”
Earn Tez Scratch CardsTM to win up to ₹1,000 with each transaction and be eligible to win ₹1 lakh every week with Lucky Sundays. You don’t need to hunt for coupon codes. Just use Tez and if you win, your rewards go straight into your bank account.
Currently, Tez is only available in India, but Android Police points out that recent trademarks by Google seem to point toward a wider launch to other Asian countries in the future. Tex certainly comes well equipped for that, packing language support for English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu.Tez is available for download now on Android and iOS.