Google Wallet usage doubles after card system changes
updated 09:54 pm EDT, Fri September 14, 2012
Move to accept all credit, debit cards seen as main reason
Google Wallet has seen a 100-percent increase in use in the last few weeks. The company is putting the change in user numbers down to the recent revision of the app, with the addition of supporting all credit and debit cards available to customers, and an increase in locations across the US accepting NFC-based payments.
Card issuers are slowly being encouraged to sign up for the service, with Google removing any costs to card providers for signing up, and not requiring issuers to connect their systems directly to the service itself. The changes also saw a significant reduction in time for the service to add cards, from months down to days.
Although the improvements to Google Wallet are increasing the amount of users, the service still has some way to go before it could be seen as a normal use for a smartphone. There are currently over 10 million payment terminals in the US, but the MasterCard PayPass system it uses only exists in 200,000 retail locations. The small number of handsets with NFC are also hindering progress, with the current count being only six smartphones that can run the Google Wallet app. [via Google Commerce]
