Did Google pay Apple to stay out of the search game? A new lawsuit claims so: Antitrust scrutiny heats up on Big Tech ballooning unchecked into trillion-dollar firms.

In markets where Google Pay is becoming Google Wallet, users will still be able to store their payment cards and other digital documents and make payments anywhere Google Pay is accepted. In the US and Singapore, however, the standalone Google Pay app will focus on financial management and payment features, including peer-to-peer (P2P) payments.

Google Pay. After significant investment in UX and feature offerings, Google Pay is set to grow its user base at a 6.1% four-year CAGR through 2026—the fastest rate of the major wallets—showing it’s become a destination rather than default for Android users. A slew of new initiatives designed to simplify use will further accelerate growth.

EU probing Apple Pay: Restricting access to key NFC technologies on iPhones prevents EU banks from providing payment solutions, limiting competition. Mounting scrutiny could alter the duopoly’s payments dominance.

While the segment presents lucrative growth opportunities, competition is intense—players like Google Pay and AliPay dominate large portions of key markets.

Ten percent of US digital buyers have used BNPL, mirroring Google Pay use and outperforming use of retail apps from brands like Starbucks, which 8% of digital buyers said they’ve used, per a February Bizrate Insights survey. And the number of US BNPL users is expected to grow 31.4% year over year (YoY) in 2022 and hit 59.3 million, per Insider Intelligence forecasts.

Related content: Check out our “US Mobile Payments Forecast 2021” to gain insights on the state of the mobile payments space and see how Google Pay stacks up against competitors.

Customers can purchase cryptos with Mastercard and Visa cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay—and now, they can make account-to-account (A2A) payments through Volt’s open banking integration. The open banking solution lets Mercuryo users avoid hassles involved with purchasing cryptos with cards: Many issuers don’t let cardholders purchase cryptos, and those that do often impose fees.

Payment apps like Google Pay and PhonePe hold significant UPI market share—but that could change once the government begins enforcing a 30% market cap for apps operating on UPI next year. This could make it easier for Slice to capture more UPI volume and expand its overall presence, which can set the foundation for adoption as the startup looks to become a super app, sources told TechCrunch.

Biometric-authenticated mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay are exempt from the limit, which they could use to entice users who make higher-value contactless transactions to mobile.

Google’s update to Google Pay includes enhancements to its Google Plex bank account—as big tech companies dive into banking, it jeopardizes the value proposition of digital-only banks like Chime and Varo.

Tech companies are well-established now in payments: Apple Pay and Google Pay have respective market shares of 43.4% and 25.0% in proximity mobile payments, a nearly $247 billion market. Venture capital firms invested nearly three times more money in embedded-finance companies in 2021 versus 2020, per PitchBook.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver, junior analyst Blake Droesch and senior forecasting analyst Oscar Orozco discuss Facebook's "Messenger Rooms," how Quibi is doing, when people will comfortably resume certain activities, why the NFL draft broke records, Australia making Facebook and Google pay media outlets and more.

And Google paid $187.3 million for Japan-based cashless payments startup pring in September, which we called out as an opportunity to expand Google Pay acceptance. Related content: Interested in learning more about payment processors like Worldline? Check out the “Participants in the Payments Purchasing Chain” report.