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Google Yesterday launched its Google Wallet NFC mobile payment service in the US.
The company began pushing out the service in an update to Sprint's Nexus S 4G phones. It has gone live with support for Citi MasterCard payments.
Google said Visa, Discover and American express have all provided their NFC specifications to the company, so support for their cards will be added shortly.
New York Timesreported that Google will at first concentrate on signing up NFC merchants in New York and San Francisco. Customers will also be able to use Google Wallet at merchants that support certain existing MasterCard payment initiatives.
As an incentive, users signing up to receive the related Google Prepaid Card by the end of the year will get $10 in credit.
Google first unveiled its mobile wallet service in May. The company also revealed it is working on a related point-of-sale system, SingleTap.
The search giant will face competition in the market from major players including PayPal which have mobile payment ambitions of their own.
Source:
Dylan Bushell-Embling