Google Inc. unveiled two services to let consumers pay merchants and download coupons with a tap of their mobile phones, as the Internet-search giant seeks to expand in the growing market for mobile advertising.
Google is partnering with Mastercard Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. to let customers pay and receive coupons on the go using their handsets, the company said Thursday at a news conference in New York. The system, based on a technology called near- field communication, will be available first on the Nexus S handset, which uses Google’s Android software, and later on other phones.
The new services will help Google compete for retail-marketing dollars that now flow to daily-deal sites such as Groupon Inc., in-store display advertisers, business directories and newspapers. They will also help the company capture more information about consumers’ shopping behavior off the Internet, building on its knowledge of consumers’ online-buying habits.
“For Google, it is about advertising and enabling commerce,” said Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless analyst in Issaquah, Wash. “Google wants to become the personal concierge for the consumers.”
More than 96 percent of Google’s $29.3 billion in sales last year came from search advertising.
Google said it expects to receive revenue from delivering ads and offers to handsets and won’t make money off of payments. The payment service, called Google Wallet, and the related Google Offers service will be free to consumers.
Google Wallet will be available in San Francisco and New York this summer. Google Offers, integrated with Google Wallet and offering coupons and discounts, will be available in the same markets and in Portland, Ore.
How it will work
Shoppers will touch their phone screen to select a card, then tap the phone to a credit-card reader in a store or restaurant. Google will make money by selling coupons and advertising that come along with the transaction.
