Google to wind down GPay in US by June

Pay to Wallet: Search engine giant Google is shutting down its GPay business in the United States by June 4, the company has said.

The move is to consolidate payments for US users in Google Wallet. Users in India and Singapore will not be affected by this change.

Users can can continue to view and transfer funds to their bank account after June 4, 2024 from the Google Pay website, Google’s Group Product Manager for Google Pay Joris van Mens said in a blogpost. 

Google Wallet, which was introduced in 2022, led to the phase out of Google Pay, which allowed for digital payments through desktop and mobile apps in stores.

The Wallet feature is used five times more than Google Pay, as per the announcement, since it can incorporate credit cards for tap-to-pay along with digital IDs and public transit passes.

Google has earlier phased out overlapping products, like Jamboard, cloud gaming service Stadia and its music app, Google Play music.

Notably, Google Wallet was the company’s first attempt at enabling money transfers on Android. Android Pay was also launched as a feature in 2015. Even as Google Pay tried replacing both wallets, the feature will now be itself replaced by Google Wallet.

Millions of people in over 180 countries use Google Pay to check out while shopping on desktop using ChromeOS, macOS and Windows PC, from Android and iOS apps, and in stores, Google said.

Its Wallet feature helps Android users save, find and use Google Pay payments. After Wallet replaces Google Pay, tapping to pay in stores and managing payment methods will be possible through the Google Wallet itself.

The company added that they wish to make this transition as smooth as possible.
 
Back home in India, Google Pay is emerging as a replacement for Paytm, after RBI's clampdown on most of its payment services. It recently launched a Soundpod for QR payments, directly competing with Paytm's Soundbox for merchants.