Transact Like You Chat With Tez, Google's New Digital Payment App For India

New Delhi: Forgot to bring your wallet for your early morning cup of tea at your local tea shop? Or are you not carrying enough cash for your weekly grocery shopping? No worries, as a new mobile payments app will now allow you to make payments to anyone, anywhere. With the launch of Tez, a mobile payments app developed by Google in India, payments will now be easier and smoother. At the launch of the app, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley expressed hope that digital payment is going to pick up momentum with more advanced technology coming into the market. Designed for the Indian market and built on the government-supported Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Tez allows users, free of charge, to make small or big payments straight from their bank accounts. Tez, named after a Hindi word which means fast, works in partnership with all major Indian banks and with a vast majority of country's smartphones; allowing you to pay or get paid by almost anyone. "Send money to friends, instantly receive payments directly to your bank account and pay the nearby cafe with Tez, Google's new digital payment app for India," Google notes in its information portal about the new app. While speaking at the launch event, the finance minister Arun Jaitley said that Google team saw a great potential in the remonetisation after the demonetization and Tez perhaps becomes the simplest form of monetary transactions.

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"A lot of people went in for digitisation in terms of mode of payment, more out of compulsion rather than finding it a more convenient method to transact, but that compulsion created a habit for many," the finance minister said in his address at the launch event.

"We reached a peak figure (after the demonetisation), then it marginally slipped and is now bound to pick up again," he further added.

The finance minister also stated that Tez by Google and other ecosystems (to facilitate digital transactions) will make a major change in the digital payments landscape in India.
 
Rajan Anandan, Vice President, South East Asia and India, Google, who kicked off the event, said that India is embracing the internet in ways none of us have seen before. Mr Anandan also highlighted that 300 million of the 400 million accessing Internet in India do so on their smartphones.

"Over 650 million are expected to use Internet by 2020 and Google's mission is to build an inclusive Internet," Anandan added.
 

"Tez enables users to transact instantly, directly from their bank account. That's because Tez is built on top of UPI - the Unified Pyments Interface from National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The Tez Shield (Google's multi layered security and 24/7 protection) in the app also helps detect fraud and prevent hacking, protecting every transaction done on the mobile app," said Diana Layfield, Vice President, Next Billion Users, Google.

While explaining the usage, Diana Layfield further stated that setting up the Chrome Web Payments interface for Google Tez is simple for merchants as well.

"Our deep integration with Chrome drops you directly into the payment flow, making it fast and simple. You don't have to fill in any card details or redirected to a separate payment page," Diana Layfield said.

When asked how the company intended to compete with Alibaba-backed Paytm, Diana Layfield said, "Our primary competitor is cash. The focus is on getting more people to use digital payments instead of cash. There is plenty of room for many players."

When asked the company's plans to monetize the app, Caesar Sengupta, Vice President, Product Management, Google said that there are no plans to monetise the app in coming months and the focus is on growing usage.

"We did not start with a product built for another country and then localise it, we looked at what was unique about India and countries like India and built a product especially for it," said Mr Sengupta.
"This is a product that is made for India. There are areas where India will leapfrog the West and one such case is payments and commerce," he further added.

Also Read: Mastercard Is Working With Government Of India To Develop Low Cost Payment Technologies

In the coming months, Google also plans to integrate wallets and cards on the Tez platform. It will also give scratch cards to users worth up to Rs. 1,000 on transactions above Rs. 50. Besides, the tech giant is also working with businesses like PVR and redBus that will allow customers to pay using Tez. The company is in discussion with other businesses on getting them on board as well. Soon, the players like Lava, Micromax, XOLO, Nokia and Panasonic will also introduce devices with Tez pre-embedded on them.

The app also has a 'Cash Mode' feature that allows one to pay without sharing bank details or phone number. Based on the audio QR code technology - like Near Field Communication - the users are connected through their phone's microphone and speaker and then they can complete the transaction.
 

The app (7MB in size) is now available for download on Google Play (Android) and the App Store (iOS). It offers language support for English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu. To establish an account and to use Tez, the user must be in India, have an Indian bank account and an Indian mobile number.

Also Read: Uber Integrates Unified Payments Interface In Partnership With NPCI

(With inputs from PTI)