Google Play Now Has UPI Autopay Support For Subscription Based Services In India!

Google has now launched a new feature i.e. UPI Autopay as a payment option for subscription-based purchases on Google Play in India.

Background

It broke the news on November 15.

The context here has to do with RBI’s 2021 recurring payment guidelines that initially disrupted subscription-based payments for online services.

Hence UPI Autopay emerged as a key alternative.

Intention

Saurabh Agarwal, Head of Google Play Retail & Payments Activation – India, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand stated, 

“With the introduction of UPI Autopay on the platform, we aim to extend the convenience of UPI to subscription-based purchases, helping many more people access helpful and delightful services–while enabling local developers to grow their subscription-based businesses on Google Play.”

This was launched under UPI 2.0 by the National Payments Corporation of India.

Consumer safety

UPI Autopay is helpful in that it helps users make recurring payments using any UPI application that supports the feature.

Users can tap on the payment method in the cart, choose the “Pay with UPI” option and approve the purchase in their preferred app.

Indian apps and games saw an 80 percent increase in consumer spends in 2021 compared to 2019 on Google Play

Thus, bringing UPI into Google Play’s payment flows was a big area of investment for the company, Aditya Swamy, Director, Play Partnerships, Google India said at the time.

Under investigation

“We are always looking at adding popular and effective forms of payment around the world to ensure people can pay for apps and in-app content conveniently,” Agarwal said in a blogpost.

These developments come in the backdrop of an alliance between India’s antitrust watchdog the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in dealing two back-to-back blows to Google that could have a significant impact on how the internet giant does business.

The commission has passed antitrust orders on two of its businesses Google Play Billing and Android.

It wants Google to implement a list of remedial measures apart from paying a combined provisional penalty of Rs 2,274 crore.

Google said it was evaluating the next step on both orders.