Representative image of credit cards.
Credit: iStock
Alphabet Inc's Google Pay launched its first co-branded digital credit card in India on Wednesday in partnership with Axis Bank, intensifying efforts to monetize its massive user base in the country's crowded fintech sector.
Why it's important
While Google Pay is a dominant player in India's popular domestic payments network, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), its core service generates zero revenue from user-to-user payments due to government mandates. It, however, earns commissions for in-app services like bill payments and mobile recharges.
The credit card launch opens a new avenue for Google to monetize its user base, mirroring strategies by domestic rivals Paytm and PhonePe to cross-sell lending products to payment users.
By the numbers
India has just 50 million credit card holders, according to Google Pay, whereas its population exceeds 1.4 billion.
Google Pay meanwhile is the second top app in India by number of UPI transactions, having processed nearly 7.2 billion transactions in October alone.
How it works
Axis Bank manages the credit risk and issuance, while the digital-only card will be linked to the Google Pay app to make online and offline payments on the go.