Sundar Pichai says, 150 million people across 40 countries use Google Pay

Sundar Pichai has said that Google will remain focused on accelerating growth in India’s digital ecosystem and expand partnerships in the region. Alphabet CEO, Google’s parent company, Pichai said this while addressing an investor call after the company announced its results for the March quarter.

Asked about the evolution of Google Pay and its ambitions to add more utility to the service, Pichai responded, “…And you mentioned the work in India that was certainly what really got everything started...150 million people across 40 countries are using Google Pay...And then over time, we will innovate and build new digital experiences. Simple examples you saw was we rolled out the ability for users to pay for parking on Google Pay with their voice just using Google Assistant.”

Pichai mentioned hybrid workplace models will stay. “Even as more people return to in-person activities, we are seeing hybrid approaches to learning and working are here to stay, and our products are helping partners seize these new opportunities,” he said.

To support its flexible work plans this year, Pichai said, Google is planning to invest about $9.5 billion in its US offices and data centres, creating at least 12,000 new Google jobs in the US in places like New York and Atlanta.

Talking about the service fee for apps on Google Play that had become controversial, Pichai said 99% of app developers qualify for a service fee of 15% or less. “While this impacted our short-term results, we think it’s the right long-term approach to support the ecosystem and to be the most developer-friendly app store and gaming platform available. We are also exploring alternative billing options. And as we do this, we’ll continue to uphold high safety standards that protect personal data and sensitive financial information.”

In order to enable long-term growth, the company is investing in areas like cloud, AI, YouTube, and Search. The board of Alphabet has authorised $70 billion in share repurchases, significantly up from last year’s $50 billion.