Alphabet Inc will tie up with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (MUFG) on its Android Pay platform, a person with knowledge of the matter said, the latest move by a technology giant to tap Japan’s rapidly growing digital payments market.
Starting as early as autumn, users of certain Android-based mobile phones will be able to use MUFG’s debit cards for transactions made through Android Pay, the person said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.
The Nikkei Shimbun reported the news earlier yesterday.
Alphabet spokesman David Marx declined to comment, as did Taiki Kitaura, a spokesman for MUFG’s main lending unit.
The tie-up between Google’s parent and Japan’s largest lender came after Bloomberg News reported last week that Apple Inc’s next iPhones sold in Japan might include technology called FeliCa, a mobile tap-to-pay standard developed by Sony Corp that is carried in cards such as the Suica and Pasmo rail passes.
Japan’s mobile-payments network has expanded more than seven times since September 2007 to 1.9 million terminals in May. That compares with the 1.3 million terminals in the US and 320,000 in the UK, according to research from Let’s Talk Payments and the UK Cards Association.
Separately, Google is preparing to expand a San Francisco carpooling program in a move that could set up a showdown with its one-time ally, popular ride-hailing service Uber Technologies Inc.
The plans are to build upon a test service that Google’s navigation app Waze launched three months ago in the San Francisco Bay Area. The program allows anyone using the Waze app to offer a ride to a limited pool of people trying to get to work or home.
Now, only people working at six companies, including Google, Wal-Mart Stores and Adobe Systems, can request rides. The tests have worked well enough to encourage Waze to move into the next phase and allow anyone in the Bay Area with its app to request a ride by the end of this year, spokeswoman Julie Mossler said.
Waze is not trying to make money for itself or the drivers offering to share a ride. Instead, Waze sets a variable fee of up to US$0.54 per mile (1.61km) to reimburse the drivers for gasoline and maintenance on their vehicles. The riders pay that fee.
Waze also limits trips to a rider’s work or home, with a maximum of two trips per day. Although riders can request a ride at any time, Waze is focusing the service on providing trips during peak commute times in the mornings and evenings. Only one rider is allowed per vehicle.
In contrast, Uber touts its around-the-clock service as a way for its drivers to make a living or supplement their incomes. Uber also hopes to eventually turn a profit itself to justify its financial backers’ belief that the privately held company is worth more than US$60 billion.
Additional reporting by AP
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