Google Pay users in the US can now send money to app users in India and Singapore, with plans to extend to the 80 countries covered by Wise and 200 countries served by Western Union by the end of the year.
According to the companies, Google has established international money transfer agreements with remittance firms Wise and Western Union for users of its U.S. payments app.
Google’s entry into the $470 billion remittance market is a move forward in the company’s efforts to diversify its financial services portfolio, increasing consolidation in the digital payments market.
“Even with COVID, a lot of people have moved around the world, so we decided to concentrate on how we can better promote these payments,” said Josh Woodward, Google’s director of product management. “This year, our aim is to collaborate with Wise and Western Union to implement this for the countries they support.”
Wise and Western Union’s collaboration with Google Pay, which has 150 million users, comes as the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an increase in online payments but a decrease in total remittances.
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