Google Pay takes its QR Soundbox to small merchants in India after trial run

Google on Thursday said it plans to launch SoundPod, its portable speaker designed to instantly validate and announce successful payments, to small merchants across India in the coming months. Google Pay’s expansion into India, where the company is a leader in the mobile payments market, comes at a time when the company has shut down some of its payments apps in the US.

The company, which started its limited trial soundpod Last year, testing received positive feedback and helped merchants reduce checkout times, said Ambrish Kenghe, Google Pay’s vice president of products. wrote in a blog post,

The miniature jukebox, colloquially called a “soundbox”, has been widely adopted in India, enabling traders to seek relief on receipt of remuneration and counter any illegitimate claims.

Financial services firm Paytm is currently the leader in the soundbox market and PhonePe is also rapidly expanding its line of devices. More than 20 million merchants in the country already use one of these boxes, with industry insiders estimating that it costs about $18 to $20 to make. (Incidentally, Paytm is currently “fighting for its survival“Because it removes regulatory restrictions.)

Soundbox was invented to serve small Indian merchants who are unable to purchase regular point-of-sale devices but accept UPI payments. (UPI is a payments network created by a coalition of retail banks in India It has become the most popular way for Indians to transact.) Now more popular than Visa, MasterCard and Amex, these tools propelled the payments giants last year Look for ways to take advantage of their reach,

Over time it has also evolved into an attractive subscription model as various players charge subscription fees to merchants. According to one industry insider, the real allure of Soundbox goes beyond its auditory alerts – it provides invaluable insight into trader behaviour, facilitating loan offers based on this data.

Google Pay is offering the SoundPod at the lowest cost – a one-time fee of $18 for one year, or $6.06 per day for 25 days in a month. The company said merchants who use SoundPod to process 400 payments a month will get $1.5 cashback.

“It is a matter of great pride for us to be able to play a role in India’s digital payments story, it provides invaluable lessons on how digital transformation happens in technologically-advanced societies, and we are looking forward to it for the long term.” Will remain deeply invested in this journey. ,” added Google’s Kenghe.

Reliance is also India’s largest company in terms of market cap. had begun testing a similar device at its campus last year, TechCrunch previously reported. The company confirmed the device in a subsequent earnings call and said it plans to launch it in the market soon.