Google Tez UPI-Enabled Digital Payment App Launched in India

Google Tez UPI-Enabled Digital Payment App Launched in India

Indians now have one more app to choose from when they want to pay for movie tickets, utility bills, and make other transactions online. Ahead of its scheduled press event in New Delhi on Monday, Google unveiled Tez, the first digital payment app from the company for the Indian market as it enters the country's booming digital payments industry that its global rivals Amazon and Facebook are also eyeing. Tez means fast in Hindi, which the company said was one of the top features of its new app.

Google Tez is a standalone payments app, available on Android and iOS, and is powered by UPI, a payments protocol built by government-backed organisation NPCI. The launch of Tez comes nine months after the company chief executive officer Sundar Pichai told NDTV in a televised interview that he was looking at UPI and ways to adopt it.

The Google Tez UPI-enabled digital payments app supports various local languages including Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu. The interface is straightforward. The company asks users to enter their bank account number and verify their ownership. They can do so easily by quickly sending a text message from their registered phone number through the Tez app's interface. Once verified, Google prompts the user to add a UPI PIN, and then they can start making payments. They can then see all their friends who're also using Tez, and request and pay money.

More interestingly, however, is the Google Tez "Cash mode" option, which transmits "audio" to identify the person nearby to you, and lets you pay or receive money when you're able to find that user. The company has partnered with HDFC Bank, ICICI, and State Bank of India for backend processing.

Google has partnered with several popular services to boost its usage. Bus ticketing service RedBus, PVR Cinemas, Domino's Pizza, DishTV and Jet Airways are launch partners, it said on the website. The company suggests users to have a look out for Tez logo in their favourite services to see whether it is supported. The company has also introduced "Tez Scratch Cards", and from the description it appears it will be offering customers deals and vouchers through this feature to attract them.

Business Messaging

The company also has a business channel on its service, a feature WhatsApp recently started testing and Paytm is working on. Business channels will help customers easily find services, the company said. These businesses can then talk to the customers and give them discounts. Customers can then easily pay for the offers they avail from within the app. If you have a business, you can sign up for the service here.

On the security from, Google says all the transactions on Tez app are guarded by something called Tez Shield to "detect fraud, prevent hacking, and verify identity. We built Tez to provide security throughout the payment process from customer to business and back." One thing the company has done is introduce an additional PIN layout to protect any unauthorised usage. On iOS, the app supports Touch ID.

With Tez app, Google has become the latest international giant to enter India's increasingly growing digital payments market. Samsung in their respective services in the country this year. Amazon and Netflix are also planning to add UPI support to their respective services, people familiar with the matter said.

"Google is a bit late to the game, but it is not a concern as they are still well placed in building trust with the consumer base for the growth of its payment platform," Neha Dharia, senior analyst at Ovum told Gadgets 360, adding that digital players have realised that they need to figure out a payment mechanism as they evolve to address the next stage of consumer usage.

"Players are moving to becoming platforms for a range of online and offline goods and services. Which is why it is crucial for established players to not only introduce a payment tool but also start building trust amongst consumers regarding aspects such as ease of use and security. This is why players like Google amongst others are being aggressive with the deployment of their payment tool," she said.

Google's biggest rival could be WhatsApp, which also plans to introduce support for UPI payments in its instant messaging app later this year, a person with directly knowledge of the matter said earlier. With over 200 million active users, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in India. Google's services including search, Maps and Android have tremendous reach in the country as well.

An analyst pointed out how India continues to attract the attention of global giants. "It certainly seems like India is attracting more and more localisation from big global companies lately, between Amazon's smartphone strategy, Apple's local manufacturing, and so on. Although arguably Apple is still doing rather less localisation in India than others, and much less than it's doing in China," Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research told Gadgets 360.

Google, in particular, has arguable done more for consumers in India than any other global technology company. From its focus on localised search features, to free Internet at public places, to make its services more appealing to the less-educated and privileged of the market, the company is increasingly pushing the reach of its services in the country. "It's clear that the big global tech companies see India as an increasingly important market and are willing to customise products, services, and even business models to make them successful in India," Dawson said.

India's digital payments industry

The sudden spike in the digital payments space from the companies comes as Indians actively look at payment methods other than cash. The government's decision to invalidate Rs. 500 and Rs 1,000 bills last year, that at the time amounted to more than 85 percent of bills in circulation, saw a major spike in usage of digital payments apps such as Paytm and MobiKwik. India's payments industry will grow to $500 billion by 2020, according to a study published by Google and research firm Boston Consultancy Group. Analysts at GSMA and Credit-Suisse said the government's demonetisation move has bolstered the growth of digital payments apps usage in India.

Google's backing of UPI, which was launched just last year, could further boost its credibility and usage among Indians. UPI has already surpassed mobile wallet apps in one key area: the amount of money exchanged. A staggering sum of Rs. 41.3 billion was exchanged using UPI platform in August, compared to 27.2 billion by mobile wallet apps, according to India's central banking institution RBI. In terms of number of transactions, UPI stood at 16.6 million, while mobile wallet apps were at 89.7 million.

"Google could boost UPI adoption depending on how the tool is placed and if they have good set of partnerships and deals with offline service providers and retailers," analyst Dharia said. "The connection to bank account and validation of the consumer also works well for a player like Google."

For Google, this could be another test to explore how quickly and widely its payments app gains traction. The company's earlier attempts such as Google Wallet and Android Pay are popular among customers, but they are struggling behind Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. The company started to look for people in India for its Tez app last year, according to recruitment posts on its website. Apple Pay is at present not available in India.