New app, who dis?... Google Pay just went from something you use when you forget your credit card to a padded money app. Five years after launching, Pay has a whopping ~150M users in 30 countries. The revamped app rolled out in the US this week. It's a three-tab story:
- Pay: Tap-to-pay, peer-to-peer payments, and searchable transaction history. Google says it won't sell data or share it for ad targeting.
- Explore: Shows rewards and discounts at shops. If you allow Pay to analyze your transactions, it'll also show personalized offers. Because Google doesn't know enough.
- Insights: Lets you connect your bank accounts for a spending overview, like Mint. You can even let Pay crawl your Gmail and Google Photos to find receipts (techy, not creepy).
But wait, there's more... In order to make sure it's in direct competition with every other money app: Google said it'll partner with banks to offer online checking and savings accounts in 2021. But the focus is Venmo-style payments and bill-splitting — Google's betting the "network effect" of peer-to-peer will take Pay to the next level.
Financial apps want all of you... Google Pay wants to achieve "all-in-one" app status, and so do other fintechs. They start with one thing, then expand.
- Venmo started with peer-to-peer, now it has a debit card.
- Cash App started with peer-to-peer, now it does investing.
- Robinhood started with investing, now it has Cash Management (disclosure: Robinhood Snacks is owned by... Robinhood).
- Chase started with banking, now it shows your credit journey.