Google Wallet and Gmail integration now released to general public

Internet giant Google is pushing forward with its money transferring scheme with its most used service, Gmail.

The search giant unveiled Google Wallet integration with Gmail back in May 2013 with a soft-launch and is now moving forward with pushing the money transfer service to a wider audience. The service until now was available to anyone with Google Wallet account or had already been sent money via Gmail.

Once linked with Google Wallet an “$” symbol is added to attachment options allowing for funds to be debited from a linked bank account or credit card (at an additional fee) and be sent to a contact who also has the service. Promotion of the service is still low key, Google is most likely interested in user data rather than having users utilizing the service.

User data is Google’s main goal, and since its launch back in 2011, adoption of its wallet service has been underwhelming. Google would utilize banking information in addition to its current database of information to help better its personalized advertising products. When looking at major competitors in the payment field such as PayPal and Square, none of them have the immense user base like google has with Gmail. Google is most likely targeting a larger competitor, Apple.

Apple currently boasts more active accounts than any other payment solution in world totaling at over 575 million users. Apple has accumulated this impressive number through its iTunes media store and AppStore marketplace. That in addition to the rumored patents for a future payment infrastructure shows them becoming a major player in the payment arena. Gmail also has an impressive amount of active Gmail accounts with a Facebook like 425 million active accounts back in 2012 (the last time Google released numbers).

From what we can see, the Gmail integration is mainly a ploy to gain more users to sign up for Google Wallet. If Google can gain more wallet users, with future plans requiring payment through the service, it can open an entirely new revenue stream with a large base of existing users.

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