“In a world filled with payment processors for dealing with online in-app purchases, Google has decided to step out of the game,” Owen Williams reports for TNW.
“The company quietly announced today that it’s sunsetting Google Wallet for digital goods,” Williams reports. “Developers using the API have until March 2, 2015 to stop using it, at which time payments will fail to process and recurring payments that are set up will stop processing.
Williams reports, “This change doesn’t affect Google Wallet’s checkout process for buying goods online using the ‘buy with Google’ button found on many websites.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Justin” for the heads up.]
Related article:
In one week, Apple Pay already No. 1; used more than all other mobile payment systems combined – October 28, 2014
Weird. Surely now is the time they can ride Apple’s coat tails. Oh wait. Maybe they’re feeling too outgunned…
Google, so many ideas, so much crap
Google hasn’t any ideas.
That’s not fair. They’ve stepped on Apple’s toes with Android, but they have lots of talented people and lots of ideas. Their problem is that they have too many ideas and unleash them on the public in beta form.
Like he said, Google doesn’t have any ideas:
Google’s Android was a rip-off of Apple iOS.
And you think Google’s only accomplishment is Android? That’s naive. And you don’t need to school me on Eric “The Mole Schmidt’s” despicable theft of Apple IP to help out his Android team.
Look, it’s fun to diss Google and be angry about Android. We know the truth of that. But to state that “Google hasn’t any ideas” is just stupid, and I called out petey for that. The truth is as I stated: they have too many ideas. And as noted below, they have not learned which ideas to say “No” to.
I agree and their secret labs are bubbling with all manner of exotic creations, I am sure. Beta testing some of them is not a bad idea, as it keeps alive their colourful reputation as tomorrow whiz kids, a branding exercise.
A deeper look though furrows my brow: we all know their empire is funded through a business model that involves targeted advertising. That is the bedrock of their castle and it will not be replaced. Inescapably, it shapes their research direction — dictates it in fact.
The ideas they play with — they will always be those that can gather more data for their inference engine, a cold intelligence that learns us unwitting consumers through and through, the better to sell us down the river.
Rip-off means an attempt to copy-cat.
There are many useful features in Android that have still yet to make it into iOS.
So not really copy-catting. More like inspired innovation.
The trick is knowing what to say no to.
Google could do with learning that trick.
It’s fair to point out that Google’s CEO sat on Apple’s Board of Directors for three years before Steve caught him stealing Apple’s secrets. Android is outright piracy!
the writing is on the wall. Pay is that good
Yeah, why not just retire ALL of Google Wallet while you’re at it and do the world a big favor.
It’ll automatically stop processing payments and fail to notify the wallet owner until after the debt has been sent to collections. Its another example of don’t be evil in action
almost as good as google wave
You know they will come out with their version of Apple Pay.
No, they won’t, because they don’t have the ecosystem to do that. Apple does. Apple Pay is not just NFC at work. TouchID, the Secure Element are critical hardware components of Apple Pay that don’t exist on Android phones. And when, one day, Androids begin to copy iPhones, Apple Pay will be generations ahead. Good luck with that.
Google can copy the ecosystem, TouchID and all the hardware components of Apple Pay but it cannot promise not to harvest data from its clients. This is its fundament to suck the lifeblood of its customers so that it can sell ads. Apple checkmated Google when Apple announced it was not interested in Google’s method of making money.
the only way they can get away with this is if no one is actually using it
Not sure I understand….they are retiring the digital goods…online in-app purchases, meaning online sales? Does this mean they are not eliminating the physical (NFC) stores sales?
Even worse it says it’s still available through the Google pay button online just not in App …
MDN forgot “More blood on Apple Pay’s swipe of death” or somethin’.
MDN has been backing off on the bloodwork. The smirk is still there but the lurid roadkill imagery is vanishing, such a pity that is. Another year, and we may be seeing political correctness. After that comes blissful meditation.
I hope not, I sure enjoyed them, harking back to “blood on the iPod clickwheel.” for Ballmer T, Clown’s Zune and Creative Labs’ whatever they called their mp3 player crap. I’m just not fitting in to The New World Order very well.
wait! I know who you are! lol, thought you gone, for real. Your eloquence tipped your hand.
botvinnik, I think of you as Paul Revere without the silver.. one if by land, two if by sea.. three if by internet..
thank you, sweetie.
incidentally, I have plenty of silver, it’s just all moved to my hair.
It still feels silky smooth as I run my fingers through it.
lol…don’t make me write another Dear Penthouse letter.
I know that you have a nodding acquaintance with sincerity but that you prefer to keep to keep that relationship at an arm’s distance.
Just go away.
My crazy, brilliant friends. 😀
This is a better explanation: it was something that was mostly for Google+ games (and Facebook games):
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RonAmadeo/posts/DqN6UX6zryx
Remember, Google+ was SUPPOSED to be a full-fledged competitor for Facebook. So as Facebook had games (Farmville etc.) Google+ tried to sell their own games also. But Google+ in its original “Facebook competitor” incarnation was a failure (it has achieved modest success since it was retooled as mainly an invitation-only discussion board) and no one was using Google Wallet to buy games on Facebook, but were instead using Facebook’s own method of purchasing features.
In other words, this is a failure of a feature that was created for the failed Google Wallet. It has nothing to do with the rest of Google Wallet, which is still alive and kicking.
Please recall that Google Wallet is not primarily used for NFC and is not a competitor for Apple Pay in that sense. Instead, Google Wallet is the way to pay to download things from the Google Play store (akin to the App Store/iTunes store in your ecosystem). NFC payments was just an add-on, so when it flopped Google just didn’t care that much and moved on, since Google Wallet was mainly to support Google Play anyway. Used to buy apps, books, music, to rent and buy movies etc. It was basically the way to pay for their version of iTunes.
So for that reason, Google Wallet isn’t going anywhere. And since the NFC portion of it doesn’t really cost them anything, that isn’t going anywhere either. If anything, it is going to expand and be used a lot more thanks to Apple Pay. Which will, of course, also lead to more people paying for apps and other content in the Google Pay store.
Apple pay is going to be a huge boon for Google Wallet for both in store and online purchases without Google having to lift a finger. Nice deal for them don’t you think?