On January 20, Google reportedly hired arnold Goldberg, a former executive of PayPal, to run its payments business. After abandoning its foray into the financial industry, Google is looking for a new path for the business. Bill Ready, Google's commercial president, said Google plans to partner with a wide range of financial services, including cryptocurrencies, as part of that strategy. So far, Google's business has mainly consisted of Google Pay payment systems and mobile wallets, with little involvement in the cryptocurrency industry.
Reddy, a former COO of PayPal, joined Google in 2019 and began taking charge of Google's payments business after executives left. Goldberg, who previously led merchant business at PayPal, will serve as vice president at Google and general manager for payments and emerging market development, a project Google calls "the next 1 billion users."
Reddy also promoted senior engineer Peeyush Ranjan to general manager of consumer payment services. He was responsible for Google Pay's development in the Indian market.
Google first launched its payment app in 2015 and repositioned it at the end of 2020 as a hub for users to track spend and look for discount offers. At that time, Google announced that the app had 150 million monthly active users worldwide. However, Google's mobile wallet faces stiff competition, even on Google's own Android platform. For example, as the world's largest smartphone manufacturer, Samsung has adopted its own payment system.
Industry analyst Tom Noyes estimated in 2020 that Google's market share in the U.S. contactless payments market is only 4 percent, so it 's largely a failure."<
Google is trying to integrate payments more closely with shopping services, such as directly displaying user-held loyalty cards and exclusive discounts in search results. Google also wants to position itself as a more merchant-friendly platform than Amazon. In 2020, Google eliminated fees for retailers to sell goods on its shopping platform.
Google Pay does not charge a payment service fee based on the same philosophy. Google wants enough users to find value in its payment services, driving them to keep searching for information and shopping on Google's platform. "Helping more people to carry out activities on a free and open network will inevitably bring dividends to our entire business," Reddy said. ”
Cautiously engaging in the cryptocurrency industry can also help Google attract users. Google has partnered with companies like Coinbase and BitPay to support keeping crypto assets in digital cards while allowing users to continue to pay in traditional currencies. Reddy said Google is looking for more such collaborations, but the company still does not accept transactions using cryptocurrencies for now.
"Cryptocurrencies are something we care about a lot," he said. As the needs of users and merchants change, we will adjust accordingly. ”
Goldberg will be Reddy's latest deputy, whose predecessor, Caesar Sengupta, left last year. Sengupta founded a fintech company called Arbo Works after leaving and poached several employees from Google's payments team.
Reddy believes that these departures are normal business changes. He declined to say how many employees the payments division has, but said the department "is growing in a very healthy way."