Google Payments Live - Wallet for digital goods

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So if any of you out there would like to ask questions.

MIHAI IONESCU: Hello.
Welcome to Payments Live.
We have another very exciting session today.
We'll be talking about one of fastest-growing growing
segments in online payments, that is,
digital goods and services.
And our special guest today is Google Wallet product manager
Arundhati Singh.
Arundhati, thanks for finding the time to join us.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Oh, absolutely.
Very happy to be here.
Thanks, Mihai.
MIHAI IONESCU: Thank you.
We're glad to have you.
And so let's get started.
Arundhati, what is Google Wallet for Digital Goods?
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Google Wallet for Digital Goods is a great
new service that we have to monetize your online content
and services.
So if you take a look at the slide that I've just put up,
what it is is an in-context flow that we support both on
desktop and mobile web.
And some of the key benefits of using this flow are that it
keeps customers on your site while they're
completing their purchase.
So it increases conversion.
And it's a very simple integration for integrators.
From a consumer perspective, it provides convenience as
well as the security of the Google Wallet brand to
complete their payments.
And the last key point of one of the great things that we
are very proud of that we've been able to do for
integrators is provide really developer-friendly pricing.
So it's 5% for microtransactions or 1.9 plus
30% US dollars for larger transactions.
And the lowest price is automatically applied.
MIHAI IONESCU: Great.
Can you give us some example?
Who are the users of this API?
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Absolutely.
So we've been fortunate to partner with some great
developers.
And up on this slide, you'll see just a few of the great
developers we've been working with over the past year plus--
Zynga, Kabam, Graphicly, Playdom, Rovio.
MIHAI IONESCU: Wow.
That looks like all big names.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Absolutely.
MIHAI IONESCU: And are we also using this at Google?

ARUNDHATI SINGH: Yes, we absolutely are.
So the other key point about Google Wallet for Digital
Goods is that in addition to powering a number of great
external developers, Google Wallet is the way to pay
across Google.
So for any user who's completing a transaction on
Google Play, Google Offers, Google+, Google Voice, they're
all paying with stored
credentials from Google Wallet.
And the great part about that is that's really enabled us to
scale up our Wallet user base tremendously, which is
obviously an advantage to developers looking to
integrate because it makes sure that a greater percentage
of your user base will be able to get a single-click purchase
experience.
MIHAI IONESCU: Sounds like an easy to use and easy to
implement API.
Do you have an example?
Can we see a demo how it works?
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Absolutely.
So one of the integrators I've mentioned on the previous
slide was Graphicly.
They do digital content distributions.
Comic books are just one example of what they sell.
And I am now logged into Graphicly
with my Google account.
If I choose to purchase The Walking Dead, I'm able to do
so very quickly from their page.
Here's the Buy Now button.
By clicking that, it will now invoke the Google Wallet for
Digital Goods API, which should be loading.
As you can see, the purchase screen loads up
right over the content.
So there's no redirect away.
And you can also see that because, again, as a user who
also purchases from Google Play or Offers, my stored
credentials are available right here, both
cards that is use.
MIHAI IONESCU: So you choose whatever card you want.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: So I can choose very quickly.
And then very quickly complete a purchase with
just a single click.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Very nice.
It's nice that we gloss over the window, and you can still
see what you're purchasing.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Right.
MIHAI IONESCU: And it's good for the website that the user
does not actually leave the site.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Leave the sites.
MIHAI IONESCU: It's not taking to another page.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: It's much less jarring for them.
MIHAI IONESCU: Yes.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: And we do see improved conversion from that.
So one thing I'll point out just before I talk a little
bit more about how this is performed for Graphicly, is
that this confirmation screen is optional for integrators.
So it's up to them whether they'd like to show it as an
additional confirmation.
Or you can turn it off, and then it is
literally just one screen.
But to your point of the fact that it's in context,
Graphicly has seen, overall, 5% increase in conversion from
implementing this flow, and also 10 to 22% increase in
revenue per item depending on the item, partially due to the
friendliness of the pricing scheme.
MIHAI IONESCU: That's very nice.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Yeah.
So let me--
MIHAI IONESCU: So besides Graphicly, and we've seen a
lot of big names on the previous slide, big game
companies, are there other use cases for this API?
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Absolutely.
One of things we tend to see with digital content is games
are often early integrators.
But there are a wide variety of use cases that can be
served with this type of integration, so online
services, anything from something like TaskRabbit to
match.com that you can pay for online--
online apps and software; games, as I've already
mentioned; paid content, so music, videos, articles that
you pay for.
Event tickets and non-profits are all segments that we're
starting to work with more broadly and are
very excited about.
MIHAI IONESCU: I see this slide is covering basically
the entire spectrum of digital goods and services.
What is the average transaction size?
Do we have any numbers around that?
ARUNDHATI SINGH: So that's actually one of the great and
very interesting things as we look at who's integrating and
who our user base is.
Given the very flexible pricing structure, we have
integrators whose typical transaction price is $0.99 all
the way up to integrators whose typical transaction is
hundreds of dollars.
And again, it tends to vary a little bit by industry.
So when you're talking about apps or online services, you
see higher ticket prices versus games.
But the pricing structure as well as the overall
architecture support both.
PENG YING: Cool.
One of the questions that we hear a lot is when will Google
Wallet for Digital Goods be available in my country?
Can you speak about internationalization at all
and where it's currently available?
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Absolutely.
So to start with, it's something that is a
priority for us.
Since launching, we've opened up support to
over 18 seller countries.
Now, one thing to point out is that, in general, all of
Google Wallet products are available online to buyers in
140 countries.
But you can set up as a seller.
We support 18 countries and 9 currencies.
The process to get additional countries added involves
making sure that we can support that all
throughout our stack.
It's something we continually work to do.
And we are looking to add additional countries in the
next couple months.
MIHAI IONESCU: Very nice slide.
I like the summary here with the nice, simple
graphic right there.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: With all the flags.
MIHAI IONESCU: With all the flags, yes.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Absolutely.
PENG YING: So I don't know if you can get into any more
detail about that.
Like a lot of developers are always asking, oh, why isn't
this available in Poland?
Or why isn't this available in the Czech Republic?
Or those countries.
And I'm guessing there's a lot of procedurals and regulations
that would have to comply to before it can
be available there.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Yeah, absolutely.
And as I mentioned, it is the very top priority for us to
work through each of those so that we can bring this support
to more and more developers.
We are looking at launching four additional countries in
the next month or two.
So stay tuned for more details.
That's about as much as I can say today about that.
But you are right.
We do have to evaluate on a country-by-country basis what
is the licensing and the regulatory position and make
sure that we're perfectly set up.
PENG YING: OK.
So let's get into one of the new features-- subscriptions.
Can you tell us a little bit about that?
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Absolutely.
So we're very excited about subscriptions.
We announced them at I/O. And they are live
in production now.
We have support for monthly billing.
And in addition to that, you can support free trials are
prorated first month.
One of the things I wanted to mention is while we announced
subscriptions for external developers at Google I/O, this
is the same subscriptions platform that powers
subscriptions at Google, whether you're buying a
subscription through Google or YouTube for premium content or
even Google Storage, as I've illustrated here,
Google Drive Storage.
So in addition to being able to support monthly billing and
these particular use cases, integrators who integrate with
us will then be able to have buyers manage their
subscriptions via the Google Subscription management UIs.
We also provide merchant tools for that.
And just one area of subscriptions that I did want
to call out is we do have support for dunning
management.
PENG YING: What is dunning?
[LAUGHTER]
ARUNDHATI SINGH: So it's a subscriptions-related term.
But what it really means is that when you've created a
relationship with your customer and they've agreed
that they want your service on an ongoing basis, but
something goes wrong-- their credit card gets declined in a
few months--
we help you manage that process so you don't lose that
subscriber.
So the way that works in this launch is that there is a
grace period.
We notify the subscriber.
We provide them a way for them to update their payment
information and RUIs.
And that'll apply to all future subscription periods.
MIHAI IONESCU: Got it.
PENG YING: Cool.
MIHAI IONESCU: Very exciting.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Absolutely.
We're very excited about subscriptions.
PENG YING: Where do you see the future of Google Wallet
for Digital Goods going?
ARUNDHATI SINGH: So as always, it's hard to
speak to specific roadmaps.
But there are a few things that are on our mind overall
as a product that we can talk to you about today.
And I've listed just a few of them here on the slide.
So user challenges is one for risk-based reasons.
Basically, the ability to say, re-enter your password to
complete this purchase or provide the last four digits
of your credit card.
We are also, as mentioned earlier, looking at supporting
additional merchant countries in the very near future.
As mentioned, subscriptions is something that we've launched
very recently at Google I/O. And we'd like to continue to
extend and enhance that offering.
And one of the things that I can say about that is we
absolutely are looking at providing support for
additional subscription billing periods.
A couple other tools to make-- so that's more in the core
product and in the buyer experience.
We're also looking at how can we make it easier for
merchants and developers to then manage
their day-to-day business.
So we will be rolling out a brand new merchant center with
improved UI and enhanced functionality, including
support for better subscription management.
And also analytics to help you better realize how your
business is performing.
PENG YING: So you were talking about user challenges before.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Absolutely.
PENG YING: And then I'm just thinking about it.
I don't quite understand how that would simplify the flow.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Right.
PENG YING: What the benefit of it is.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: I'm glad you asked that question because
it's an important one to understand.
The reason that user challenges are an important
part of the experience is that they enable us to complete a
higher percentage of transactions that might
otherwise be flagged as risk or friendly fraud.
This is an issue we see with digital goods.
Now, a lot of things we've done have enabled us to
streamline the purchase flow, enabling you to have a longer
session so that users aren't constantly prompted for login
before completing the purchase.
But a key component of that is that to make sure that it's
not someone from your family making an unauthorized
purchase on your behalf or that your account hasn't been
taken over.
These challenges are a really low-friction way to make sure
that we can continue to enable that more seamless experience
in the very broad majority of cases.
PENG YING: Got it.
So we're trying to reduce the friendly fraud and like--
ARUNDHATI SINGH: We're trying to reduce friendly fraud.
And again, make sure that a higher percentage of a
merchant's transactions go through as opposed to being
flagged by risk and failing.
MIHAI IONESCU: Protect both the merchant--
ARUNDHATI SINGH: And the consumer.
MIHAI IONESCU: And the consumer.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Absolutely.
PENG YING: Cool.
And I think that's pretty much all the
questions that we have.
We didn't get to interrogate you there.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: No.
I love talking about this product, super excited about
it, and happy to answer any questions that developers or
prospective developers may have about it.
MIHAI IONESCU: Yeah.
Let's look at online questions.
We actually got a few.
PENG YING: So if somebody wanted to integrate this,
where would they go for information or resources?
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Sure.
PENG YING: What's the URL?
ARUNDHATI SINGH: So if you go to wallet.google.com, you'll
find information about all of our online products.
And this particular product, as mentioned, is Google Wallet
for Digital Goods.
PENG YING: Got it.
MIHAI IONESCU: Thank you.

All right.
Time for online submitted questions.
I'm looking at our Moderator page right now.
And of course, we have a question about launching in
more countries and currencies.
And the country mentioned is Poland, which we actually
picked as an example.
PENG YING: Psychic.
[LAUGHTER]
MIHAI IONESCU: Yes.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: I will say that we know that there's a
very active developer base in Poland.
And it is very close to the top of the priority list.
And so hopefully, you'll hear something exciting in the next
month or two.
MIHAI IONESCU: OK.
Have a-- you want to do the next one?
PENG YING: Yeah, I'll do the next one.
So Stephen from New York asks, "Can I use the Digital Goods
Wallet API to support my blog?"
ARUNDHATI SINGH: You absolutely can use this API to
support a blog.
Just like you would do for a normal e-commerce integration,
you can sign up for a merchant account, again, at
wallet.google.com.
Once you've signed up for a merchant account, you are
absolutely free to use this API to integrate with your
blog and ask for support.
PENG YING: Are there any caveats with support versus
donation versus contribution?
ARUNDHATI SINGH: So, a great thing to clarify.
In some of our additional products, we do make a
distinction between donations and political contributions.
So we provide Donate buttons.
But to use those, you have to be a
registered 5013(c) nonprofit.
And similarly with our Contribute buttons, you have
to be a registered federal political candidate or a
political action committee.
But to be able to just use this API and to be set up as a
merchant, you can use that for a support use case.
You just won't be entitled to use the Donate
or Contribute buttons.
PENG YING: Got it.
MIHAI IONESCU: Let's move on to the next question.
This one is from James who's testing
subscription in the sandbox.
And he wants to know "As the user places the order, how can
he cancel the subscription right away?" He's trying to
test the entire API.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: So users are actually able to cancel
subscriptions by going into their personal
Wallet accounts online.
So if I've made a purchase on your site or if I've made a
purchase on Google Play, I can then log into my account at
wallet.google.com.
And I'll see all of my subscriptions listed there.
There's a subscription-specific view.
And I can cancel from there.
MIHAI IONESCU: And you can click and cancel?
ARUNDHATI SINGH: I can click and cancel.
MIHAI IONESCU: OK.
And then I--
for the API, then James will get a callback.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Yes.
So from a merchant perspective--
MIHAI IONESCU: Yeah.
From his perspective he wants to know when that happens.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: How he can test that.
MIHAI IONESCU: How he can test that.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: So the minute that a user cancels, we do
fire off a post back to the merchant informing them so
that they can update their subscriber databases.
And make sure to update that particular user's account on
their site.
MIHAI IONESCU: I think we have one more.
You wanna take it?
PENG YING: We do?
I have not seen it.
Oh, maybe we do.
MIHAI IONESCU: OK, just--
[LAUGHTER]
PENG YING: Why don't you take this one?
MIHAI IONESCU: OK.
People are submitting it to live, so yes.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Great.
MIHAI IONESCU: So I have a question coming from Canada.
"How will Google Wallet stay competitive with devices ISIS
in US and worldwide?"
ARUNDHATI SINGH: OK, so this particular product is actually
aimed at the Digital Goods Market, Google Wallet for
Digital Goods.
So again, online services, online apps and software,
tickets and events, games.
So it's not directly competitive to ISIS or Square.
PENG YING: OK.
And I guess if the question's related to the physical wallet
or the tap-and-pay wallet, then none of
us our subject experts.
And we will bring on somebody from Wallet again to answer
that later on.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: And I believe there was a recent session
done with Robin Dua that's probably available online to
go back and look at.
PENG YING: Yeah.
So you can probably check out last week's Wallet session.
I think we covered something similar to that when we were
talking about ISIS and MCX and other initiatives as well.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Right.
But just to be clear again, for this product it's not
directly competitive to either.
And we are seeing very good traction in the market with
it, which we're excited about.
MIHAI IONESCU: Cool.
Looks like we keep receiving questions live as we speak.
[LAUGHTER]
MIHAI IONESCU: Let me look at the next one.
So the next one has to do with subscription periods.
And in particular, it looks like three months and six
months are quite popular.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Right.
So as I mentioned, right now we support monthly billing.
But we are absolutely looking for feedback from our
developers of what additional periods are most important
because this is something we'd like to continue to enhance.
So please do send that feedback through our Developer
Relations team or on our forums.
Whether weekly, biweekly, quarterly, six months, or
annual, what are your priorities?
And we can look to incorporate that.
PENG YING: Are you doing anything like
merchant-initiated recurrences?
So I would say I want a bill something like
12 times in a year.
But then I can bill at any period or at any rate as long
as I submit an API request.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: So at this point, we will do the
initiation of the charges on behalf of the merchant.
And it will be based on an ongoing subscription schedule
that's established upfront with the user.
PENG YING: Got it.
But--
OK.
Cool.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: But again, that's what we're really
looking for in terms of feedback from developers via
our forums what are the use cases you'd like to see us
enhance so we can help prioritize.
PENG YING: Sounds good
MIHAI IONESCU: Keep getting more questions about
international availability.
[LAUGHTER]
ARUNDHATI SINGH: We answered that one to death.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Absolutely.
MIHAI IONESCU: Things--
more countries are coming.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: It's absolutely a priority for us.
MIHAI IONESCU: All right.
So I think this is it.
We're getting closer to our allocated time.
So thanks everyone for watching again.
And thanks, Arundhati, for stopping by.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Thank you.
Very happy to be here.
MIHAI IONESCU: And we'll see you next time.
Bye.
ARUNDHATI SINGH: Take care.
PENG YING: That's it.
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