Digital payment service ‘Tez’ is now Google Pay

“Building for India has often meant Google building for everyone all around the world,” Caesar Sengupta, VP, Next Billion Users initiative and Payments, Google, said at its annual Google for India event here. 

“At the moment, nothing is changing about the experience in India other than the name,” he said, adding that Google is working with a few of India’s top banks -- HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Federal Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank -- to offer pre-approved, instant loans to their customers, right from within Google Pay. 

This feature will roll out to eligible users within the next few weeks, Google said.   With the roll out of this feature, eligible users will see a notification telling that they are pre-approved.

Meanwhile, at the fourth edition of its annual ‘Google for India’ event, Rajan Anandan, VP, India and Southeast Asia, focused on the role of technology in creating more locally relevant experiences for Indians. When it comes to Internet trends in India, Anandan noted that the big three themes that will define the future of India’s Internet will be ‘Voice, Video, and Vernacular.’ He said, “Voice has been emerging as the preferred mode of use for new internet users. We’re seeing major growth of voice queries in India. Furthermore, online video now accounts for 75% of all mobile traffic. And as for vernacular, the majority of the Internet users today are Indian language users, a number expected to reach 500 million plus in the next two years. 95% of video consumption is in vernacular languages.”