Google Wallet – Notes from their VP of Payment

What is it that Interests Google in Payments

It’s not about the revenue.

Over 30T$ spent in retail, despite the rise of the internet, only 5%, globally, is on the internet.

Of the 5% Google has good business with advertising, and by getting good data regarding the adverts, the users and doing this in Internet Time.

[side bar from the UK: A recent study from the Centre for Retail Research showed ecommerce is one of the fastest growing markets in Europe, despite the recent economic downturn. Transactions through online payment gateways in the U.K. in 2011 reached £50.34 billion, making up 12 percent of U.K. retail trade, up from 8.6 percent in 2008.]

Asking them selves how do you get the level of measurability into the offline mainstream world, and advertising.

Google believe that over half of retail will begin on line, and “this is where we begin to join the dots”

Use case:

Suppose you’re on line searching for something to eat, you type in Pizza,

instead of the normal search result sending you to something worth reading, but instead it is a click an advert which leads to an offer to something useful on your phone (eg a voucher). This is the “click to wallet” button, the user can then use that wallet in the real world.

When the wallet entry is used (eg the above voucher) then the merchant is able to understand which advert was the most effective, and at Point of Sale a richer experience can be delivered.

“Payments is all about behaviour”, and changing behaviour means you have to give the consumer value as well, not just the merchant. This might be to save time or money, or in this case an offer to save money on your pizza.

that Richer experience might be that you are informed at the point of sale what savings have been applied for you.

Mobile Wallet (known as Google wallet)

some world firsts (at least as boasted about by Google) for this included

Google see that the Mobile Wallet is taking off, 22 of the largest retailers have taken up the service with more coming.

What has Google learned from this deployment:

Starting with quick and fast convenient usage. Fast food, vending machines etc. this is about saving time for the consumer.

How to get this mainstream:

The number of terminals is set to double. It took 10 years to get to 100k+ terminals, and now they are adding 10k terminals on a regular basis

On the phone side, Google have 2 devices (Nexus and Nexus S) plus a new LG phone arriving soon with mobile wallet.

Sprint is the first mobile wallet operator with 10 phones due in 2012.

the ecosystem is growing and almost every handset device manufacturer are in talks, more banks/finance partners are signing up and almost all “pure voice” vendors are signing up.

Google Online checkout property was re-badges to Google Wallet, because the consumers see these as the same services, and the consumer does not see the difference.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~