Google announces rewards programs for Android Pay, releases usage figures

Google has been aggressively promoting its payment application Android Pay, the successor of Google Wallet(now reduced to a peer-to-peer payments app) and rival of Apple Pay. Speaking to the Money conference Money20/20 in Las Vegas, he gave updates of their newly implemented mobile payment service, said 9to5Google.

It is noteworthy that Apple too had launched a similar loyalty program for Apple Pay in WWDC this year.

As for the loyalty rewards program, they will start with Coke so that when a user buys soda with Goggle’s Android Pay in an NFC-enabled vending machine, they will receive reward points that will allow them to buy more sodas. Marketers are keen on this feature, as it helps them retain customers and track purchasing data. Google’s senior vice president of ads and commerce, Sridhar Ramaswamy, says that “millions” of people linked their bank cards to Android Pay since its September launch and that 60% of those people had never used Google Wallet.

Ramaswamy is planning to announce a new loyalty program coming to Android Pay. No doubt this is a way for Google to encourage the use of Android Pay, but whether or not it will be successful is a different story.

Google is also trying to drive its card partners to raise consumer awareness of Android Pay and has been working with American Express, MasterCard, and Visa to do so.

It’s hard to know exactly how Android Pay adoption is stacking up to Google Wallet, but with “millions” of users, it seems to be catching on.