Google is Luring Users to Android Pay With this Gift

Google has launched a promotion in the U.S. that is aimed at getting more people to join the Android Pay mobile payment platform.

The promotion dubbed Tap 10 is gifting some users with things such as free Chromecasts or subscriptions on Google Play as long as they use the Android Pay service at a local store. Google’s Android Pay is a rival to Apple Pay and with this move, it is a clear indication that the search engine giant is stepping up its efforts to increase the usage of its mobile payment service.

Tap 10 Android Pay promotion is limited

The Tap 10 promotion gets its name from the fact that the users need to make at least 10 Android Pay transactions before the promotion comes to a conclusion at the end of next month. While Google has not made this program official by announcing it, a company spokesperson said that this path was chosen because the promotion is still being tested with a small group of users.

This actually concurs with the fact that only a few users have reportedly received the invitations to take part in this program. What remains unclear is the procedure the search engine giant uses to choose the participants, but it is likely that the process is happening on a random basis.

What Google is doing is basically to test whether the user base of Android Pay will increase if gifts are incorporated.

Google wants you to switch from swiping with cards to tapping with Android Pay

When mobile payments started showing up, many were skeptical about their success, given that the number of business entities that accepted these tap-to-pay systems was countable. However, this is no more the case, as almost every business entity is trying to introduce this mode of payment by supporting NFC-based payments.

Apparently, more than 1 million U.S. stores accept Android Pay payments, among them McDonald’s, Duane Reade, GameStop, Macy’s, BJs and Disney Store.

While Google might have won one battle, there is still another that it has yet to even begin. It is no longer a concern to the company that there is no support for NFC payments in stores, what concerns it is the fact that people are still more inclined towards swiping.

The swiping behavior is still deeply ingrained in consumers and convincing them to switch to tapping when transacting at point of sales will take not just Google, but also Apple and Samsung quite some time. Of course, this is just because it is sometimes very hard to break old habits.

It this habit that Google wants to change with the use of promos such as Tap 10. But of course, the search engine is aware that this will take more than just 10 taps, however, the fact that there is a chance to win something might just be the best way to remind consumers that they can use Android Pay to make payments.