Android would like to buy the world a Coke.
OK, well, it would like to make it cheaper for Android users to buy future Cokes after using their phones to buy an original full price Coke at a vending machine.
About six weeks into Google Wallet’s new life as Android Pay, the payments platform has added 1 million new users, who, according to Google, had never before tried mobile payments the Google way.
That number comes care of Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s SVP of ads and commerce, who gave conference attendees in Las Vegas a first peek at some Android Pay figures yesterday (Oct. 26). A very quick, hazy peek as the figures weren’t too detailed. Ramaswamy noted that “millions” of Android owners have linked card information to Android Pay — 60 percent of whom had never used Google Wallet before.
And Android wants more — and it’s plowing the cash into marketing to capture them.
Which leads to that new loyalty program — and the theoretical Cokes. Coca-Cola is the first merchant in the Google loyalty program, and the logic is simple: Tap your phone on an NFC-enabled Coke vending machine, get a Coke and get points added into your Android Pay account for future purchases.
The move has been widely applauded by mobile watchers, who note that Google is going the extra mile to help users build habits around phone use but giving them an easy and literally rewarding way to build the habit.
To check out what else is HOT in the world of payments, click here.
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