Attempts to Revive Google Wallet Stymied by Fractious Business Partners

Well, that was embarrassing. Invest four years a lot of money and effort in a groundbreaking idea at the crux of digital commerce dominance. Establish a brand name - Google Wallet - that gains traction.

And then...what?

Well, despite all the stories about banks and merchants and credit card companies refusing to cooperate or give ground on crucial features of the once-new concept, your arch-rival (one of them, anyway) introduces a competitive product called Apple Pay - and suddenly everyone is falling all over themselves both to adopt it and proclaim its primacy.

But Google understands that it cannot afford to simply walk away from this market. The profits to be had are too great and, more importantly, the ability to tie consumers up in your business ecosystem - especially with money involved -  are simply too compelling.

The bad news for Google is that unlike Apple, they don't control the hardware involved. They have partners who have their own strategic imperatives which are not always aligned with their own. The good news is that it appears Apple does not want to share much of the new wealth that will be created, preferring to point out to putative partners the benefits of operating under the golden Apple brand.

For merchants and financiers the promise of intangible benefits pales when compared to those that can be banked. So Google has a chance. But its fundamental problem remains. The competition controls its component pieces whereas Google merely has influence. The question is whether that will ever be enough. JL

Alistair Barr reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Google exerts less control over smartphones that use Android than Apple does over iPhones. Wireless carriers are more willing to work with Google because they get no revenue from Apple Pay. One benefit of having a popular Wallet app would be the data it could collect, which could drive up ad prices, and carriers would share in the gains.
Google Inc. is reaching for its Wallet to keep pace with Apple Pay, but differences in the two companies’ mobile businesses mean it won’t be easy.
The Internet-search giant is trying to marshal an unruly coalition of device makers, wireless carriers, banks and payment networks to shape a new version of its Google Wallet payment service, in some cases by offering them more revenue. Google hopes to unveil the new service at its developer conference in late May, said people familiar with the matter.
Google, however, exerts less control over the smartphones that use its Android mobile operating system than Apple Inc. does over its iPhones. Smartphone makers and wireless operators offer many flavors of Android devices, with different preloaded apps. Each player has its own priorities, and changes made on behalf of one player can inconvenience the rest.
Further complicating Google’s task is that some of its “partners” have plans for their own payment services. Samsung Electronics Co. , the biggest maker of Android phones by number of units, plans to unveil its own payment service next month using technology from LoopPay Inc., a payments startup Samsung acquired this week. A person familiar with the Samsung-LoopPay deal said big smartphone makers envision few benefits from cooperating with Google Wallet.
By contrast, Apple controls the iPhone’s hardware and software, giving it a big advantage. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said last week that Apple Pay was only possible because of this control. “Imagine trying to do this with several different companies,” Mr. Cook told an investment conference. “You’d be pulling your hair out.”
Persuading Android partners and financial-service companies to support its payment service requires Google to “herd the many cats involved,” wrote Tim Sloane, a payments analyst at Mercator Advisory Group, in a January research report. “It’s a mess,” he added in an interview.

Still, Google has to aim for success, because Apple Pay could become a draw for people to buy iPhones, instead of Android phones. Mr. Cook said last month that Apple Pay accounted for $2 of every $3 spent using contact-less payments on the largest payment networks.
Apple Pay “has changed the dynamics” of mobile payments, said Marc Freed-Finnegan, a former Google Wallet executive who is chief executive of retail-technology startup Index Inc. “If payments become a standard feature of phones, Google has to have a service on a par with Apple or better.”
A Google spokeswoman declined to comment. Omid Kordestani, Google’s chief business officer, told investors last month that Google is working on a “fully functional payment system” that goes “beyond just tap and pay.”
Google launched Wallet in 2011, allowing owners of some Android phones to pay by tapping on retail checkout terminals equipped with a wireless technology known as near-field communication. But most large U.S. carriers refused to preload the Wallet app on their Android phones. They also blocked the service from accessing a chip that stored credit-card information, because they were working on their own payment service.
In 2010, AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. formed Isis, later renaming it Softcard. The service failed to gain much traction, and Google is now in exclusive talks to acquire it as a key component of the revived Google Wallet, people familiar with the matter have said.
The three wireless carriers are more willing to work with Google these days, because they get no revenue from Apple Pay, the people familiar with the matter say. Mr. Freed-Finnegan said that’s created an incentive for Google and the carriers to cooperate. “Certainly Apple isn’t working with the carriers,” he said.
The three carriers and Softcard declined to comment.
In talks with the carriers, Google is offering to pay them to feature Wallet prominently on their Android phones and is dangling the promise of more revenue from advertising tied to Google searches made on the phones, according to the people familiar with the matter.
For Google, one big benefit of having a popular Wallet app would be the data it could collect on consumer purchases, which would give the company something besides website clicks to demonstrate the effectiveness of its ads. That could drive up ad prices, and carriers would share in the gains.
Banks are playing their own waiting game, to see how many carriers and device makers cooperate. Hundreds of banks are participating in Apple Pay, but most are interested in reaching Android users too. Android smartphones accounted for 47.6% of U.S. smartphone sales in December, a fraction less than Apple devices, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
Banks pay Apple a small fee for each transaction because Apple’s security measures reduce their fraud-prevention costs. Apple Pay users’ credit-card information is encrypted and stored on the phone, so merchants never see it.
Google is talking to banks and payment networks, including Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., hoping for a similar deal, according to people familiar with the situation.
Google’s situation is more complicated. In 2013, it eliminated a requirement that payment information for Wallet be stored in hardware, because the carriers had prevented Wallet from accessing the data that way. Its alternative, a software-based approach known as Host Card Emulation, may require banks to upgrade their antifraud systems. Mr. Sloane, the Mercator analyst, said the associated costs and disruption may make banks less willing to share fees with Google