Google Pay users in the US are now capable to send money to app customers in India and Singapore, the plan is to expand the project in 80 different countries via Wise, and 200 via Western Union by the end of 2021.
Alphabet Inc’s Google launched international money transfer partnerships with prominent firms like Wise and Western Union for U.S users.
Google’s entrance into the $470 billion remittance market is a step towards expanding its financial services offering, sharply increasing competition in the digital payments business.
Wise was launched in London in 2011 with aim of making international money transfers cheaper and easier, while Western Union remains king of the remittance market, with bunch of physical locations globally.
Their partnership with google pay which has 150 million users in 40 nations comes amid the COVID-19 pandemic made a lofty figure in online payments, but an estimated drop in overall remittances still continues to flow, NDTV reported.
Money transfer from migrant workers to home is projected to have declined by 14 percent since the global pandemic, worsening economic conditions, and decreasing employment levels in migrant-hosting nations, World Bank estimated analysis showed.
“Even with COVID a lot of people have relocated around the world and we wanted to focus on how we can help facilitate these payments.
“Our goal for this year is to work with Wise and Western Union to roll this out for the countries they support”, said Josh Woodward, director of product management at Google.
The Silicon Valley tech company which redesigned its U.S payment app in November of the previous year introduced paid promotions to the services and soon will launch a waitlist for bank accounts with several lenders.
The remittance functionalities have increased competition among technology companies and financial firms, with providers working hard to become one-stop-shop for their user’s financial necessities.
Ant Group, Samsung Electronics Co, Apple Inc, and PayPal Holdings Inc also offer mobile wallets planning to become hubs for services ranging from cross-border payments to credit.
