Google pushing forward with interests in mobile commerce
Google muscled its way into mobile commerce only a short while ago, but the company is already working to reform its position in this competitive sector. In 2011, Google launched its Wallet platform, which allows users to make mobile payments. The Wallet was meant to be the company’s flagship in the field of mobile commerce, but received scathing reviews and suffered from technological problems. Google has been working to improve the platform ever since and believes that the Wallet is not capable of offering high quality mobile commerce services.
Checkout service to be shut down in six months
Google is so certain that the Wallet platform is ready for the limelight that the company has announced the closure of its Checkout service. Google Checkout had been used in the past to help facilitate digital payments for online merchants. The service was moderately popular, but was unable to attract the same kind of support that PayPal’s own services had attracted over the years. In six months, Google’s Checkout service will be shut down, replaced entirely by the Wallet.
Play developers to transition to Wallet Merchant Center
The transition will not only affect online merchants as many game developers also rely on the current Checkout system. Over the coming weeks, Google will be transitioning its Play developers to the Wallet Merchant Center, which will allow them to collect payments from consumers. Google believes that this will be a more intuitive system for the mobile games sector as the system itself is designed with mobile technology in mind.
Google Wallet continues to attract attention
Google aims to create a unified approach to the mobile commerce sector. While the Wallet platform received harsh criticism when it was initially launched, it has managed to attract a rather strong following. Consumers have praised the platform for the convenience it brings to the shopping experience.
Google has high hopes for mobile games
Google has been making some major announcements recently concerning its various online ventures. Last week, the company announced its intentions in the social gaming space. Google has been seeing a great deal of promise in the game industry and has adopted a focus on mobile games, which have become one of the most lucrative sectors in gaming today. Google has plans to make mobile games more social, but not to tether these games to any particular website or online space.
Google+ Games will close at the end of June
In order to keep mobile games mobile, Google has announced that it will be shutting down its Google+ Games service at the end of June this year. Google+ Games served as a platform for social games in the same way that Facebook has done for years. The platform supports games like Angry Birds, CityVille, and Triple Town, as well as various others. The platform does not align with the company’s vision of mobile games, however, and Google will be focusing its efforts on other ventures.
Developers may return unused funds in games to consumers
Those interested in continuing to play the games that were available through Google+ Games will have to contact that game’s developer. According to Google, the funds that consumers spend on these games will also be an issue that must be handled with developers. Some games will be migrating to other platforms, where unused funds will be honored by the development team. Those that will not be migrating may be inclined to returned unused funds, but there is no guarantee that this will be the case with all developers.
Google Play may draw more people to Google+
With Google+ Games coming to a close, Google is likely to put most of its attention on its Google Play service. This service is being designed specifically for mobile games and is meant to introduce social elements into this space. Google expects that this new service will help boost the adoption of its own social network, which continues to struggle to find a foothold against social networking titans like Facebook and Twitter.
