Google and its next big challenge: NFC and e-offers

Google has proven great success on their business with adWords and AdSense, youtube, and also has shown to be very visionary by putting in place the necessary tools to help their Android ecosystem to grow to the extent of representing a threat to iOS (Apple). In my opinion the biggest challenge they are about to face is not on their current businesses, but instead in their recently announced (long waited) Google Wallet service and the mobile payment war that is about to start in the western countries.

Google Wallet was formally announced on May 26^th, and has been thought as an open platform for the stakeholders involved (handset manufacturers, telcos, banks) aiming to create an ecosystem for mobile payment. Google has invited any player to join the initiative to partner in the development of such tech.

Wallet is based on NFC (near field communication) and is expected to become the next big thing for mobiles. Google has also mentioned that in order to boost adoption of their technology, those Android’s devices that do not have a NFC chip embedded, have the chance to add an NFC sticker to their phones to start using it G-Wallet right away.

Problems seem to have started the very same day they announced that the project will be rolled out. The first competitor to start the fight is neither a TelCo nor Apple as we all might have think, the first one is PayPal. The reason they allege is that Google hired two key PayPal former workers that were involved in the mobile payment research in this company. Even one of them, was an executive at PayPal negotiating a contract that would provide Google with a payment system for their Android store. The lawsuit that was filled by PayPal includes “stealing Paypal’s employees as well as trade secrets that could have led Google on its development of their Google-Wallet”.   

Mobile payment represents such big opportunities for handset manufacturers as well as for TelCos that instead of partnering with Google, it is expected that a major race to become the de facto standard for such industry will soon begin. Apple has announced its own initiative on this matter, even though no clear plans or schedules have being formally published.

Wallet will also enable Google to boost usage of their “Google offers” by simplifying even more the way people acquires such item/discounts.  Users can simply pick the offer they are interested on, drag it into the Wallet and that’s it, they can right away redeem it if they want. This user experience enhancement will for sure re-open the doors for Google to start competing against companies like Groupon… companies that once were unwilling to sell, now might regret.


Let´s wait and see, what is clear, is that the way in which we use our mobile phones will change drastically... again. 






References:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/26/google-wallet-offers/
http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/26/google-wallet-iphone-rim-microsoft/