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| Seen is a screen capture of Google Pay website. |
By Park Jae-hyuk
Google appears to be trying to let users in Korea pay for public transportation and make payments at bricks-and-mortar stores using the Google Pay mobile payment system, according to industry sources and media reports, Monday.
A recent document from the Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS) showed that Google has added several financial services to the "designated services" of Google Pay and GPay trademarks registered here.
These financial services include electronic payment via credit and debit cards, and mobile wallets; financial transactions using a mobile device at a point of sale (POS); and credit card and transaction processing terminal services using near field communication (NFC) technology.
Google also updated the terms of service for its wholly-owned subsidiary, Google Payment Korea, July 25, by adding introductions to Google Pay. The updated terms of service took effect Aug. 29.
According to the terms, Google Pay users can manage their credit and debit cards, and other types of payment methods that can be used in stores, for apps and on the web; public transportation cards used on trains, buses and other means of transportation; and coupons, loyalty cards, boarding passes, movie tickets and other admission passes stored in Google Pay.
In Korea, Google's mobile payment system has been used only for downloading apps and software from the Google Play app store, while customers in other countries have been able to use Google Pay for public transportation and to remit money. Google Pay has also been available on iOS devices in the U.S. and India.
Observers expect Google to start supporting Google Pay in Korea in line with the forthcoming launch of its Pixel smartphones here, considering that the company has enabled a wider range of services on Google Pay in countries where it has released the smart devices.
The sale of Pixel smartphones in Korea has become more feasible, since Google began recruiting engineers and managers last month to work for its Pixel Mobile Wireless team at its Seoul office.
However, Google Pay's success in the Korean market remains to be seen, according to skeptics.
In contrast to Samsung Pay that can be used on both NFC and magnetic secure transmission (MST) based POS terminals, Google Pay only supports NFC-based payments. NFC-based devices account for only 1 percent of all POS terminals in Korea as of last year, and most of them are used in public transportation.
The dominance of MST has made it difficult for both Google and Apple to provide mobile payment services in Korea.
Google reportedly began talking with Korean credit card firms in 2017 about the domestic launch of its mobile payment service, which at the time was called Android Pay. After delaying the launch several times, however, its previous attempt eventually ended in failure.
Apple is said to have asked Korean card companies to pay for the cost of installing NFC-based terminals at their affiliated stores nationwide, but this was not accepted.
Although many franchises in Korea have now introduced NFC terminals and a growing number of shops are upgrading their POS systems, it may take more time for customers to be able to make NFC payments conveniently at any store in Korea.
Google has remained silent about the possibility of using Google Pay in stores here. The Korea Times' request for comments, through its local PR agency, was not responded to by the company.
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