Everyone wants a piece of India’s fledgling economy which is a whopping $200 billion market at the moment. Google started venturing into India’s finance market last year in September with the launch of the Tez app. The app is an Indianised version of Google Pay, something which is very popular in the West. Google rebranded the app with Indian flavour to lure Indian consumers and it has not failed a bit. Since its launch last year, the Tez app has staggering 55 million Indian subscribers spread across 300,000 towns and villages who are using it to pay bills of every kind.
Google wants to take this one-step further. The Tez app at the moment functions like a mobile wallet but soon it will be able to give you instant small cash loans. Google has joined hands with Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Federal Bank to provide instant pre-approved loans to customers “right within Google Pay in a matter of seconds”. In the coming weeks Tez app users will be able to get customized loans from the above mentioned banks with hardly any paperwork. Users must have accounts with these banks in order to access loans and once they accept the Terms and Conditions loans will be released in their accounts through Tez app.
Not only consumers, Google Tez app is also targeting retailers and merchants to rope in their financial transactions. According to Caesar Sengupta, VP, Google’s Next Billion Users Initiative and Payments, “about 15,000 retail stores in India will be enabled with Google Pay by Diwali 2018”. In addition to this Google is also developing a dedicated merchant services portal within the app to make them reach out to their customers more effectively. Google is already testing this new feature with businesses in Bangalore and New Delhi and plans to bring in more cities in the coming days.
India’s financial economy which is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2023, has become an fisheye for companies globally. Facebook’s WhatsApp and Paytm are already tough competitors of Google Pay, not to mention India’s own Reliance Jio and India Post Payments Bank.
