Check out the highlights from the Indie Games Festival

Every year Google Play, hosts the Indie Games Festival, a competition that rewards high quality indie games with promotional opportunities and supports small mobile games developers. We also host the Indie Games Accelerator, an educational and mentorship program to help high potential studios grow their business. 

Last weekend, some of the best indie game creators from Europe, South Korea and Japan, as well as players from around the world, got together at the Festival’s finals. At this interactive virtual event, players had the chance to discover these creative games, meet the people who made them and had a lot of fun exploring, collecting swag and cheering on their favorites. 

We also revealed the Top 10 finalists and Festival winners in each region, as well as the studios  selected to join the Indie Games Accelerator class of 2021.

Without further ado, here are the winners!

Indie Games Festival Winners 

Europe

Indie Games Festival - Winners | Europe. The 3 winning games have a graphic from their game featured on this banner. Blobby is seen with a party popper that is shooting out paper streamers in celebration of the winners.

Bird Alone by George Batchelor, United Kingdom
Cats in Time by Pine Studio, Croatia
Gumslinger by Itatake, Sweden


Korea

Indie Games Festival - Winners | South Korea. The 3 winning games have a graphic from their game featured on this banner. Blobby is seen with a party popper that is shooting out paper streamers in celebration of the winners.

CATS & SOUP by HIDEA
Rush Hour Rally by Soen Games
The Way Home by CONCODE

Users’ Choice aware: Animal Doll Shop by Funnyeve


Japan

Indie Games Festival - Winners | Japan. The 3 winning games have a graphic from their game featured on this banner. Blobby is seen with a party popper that is shooting out paper streamers in celebration of the winners.

Mousebusters by Odencat
Quantum Transport by ruccho
Survivor's guilt by aso
Student Category Award: Japanese Train Drive Simulator 2 "OneMan2" by HAKOT

Also check out the top 10 finalists in Europe, South Korea and Japan.


Indie Games Accelerator Class of 2021

Americas 

  • Aoca Game Lab, Brazil

  • Berimbau Game Studio, Brazil

  • Boomware Studio, Peru

  • Concrete Software, USA

  • Delotech Games, Brazil

  • DreamCraft Entertainment, Inc., USA

  • Ingames, Argentina

  • Ludare Games Group Inc., Canada

  • Whitethorn Games, USA

Europe, Middle East & Africa

  • Cleverside Ltd, Belarus

  • Dali Games, Poland

  • Firegecko Ltd, United Kingdom

  • Hot Siberians, Russia

  • Infinity Games, Portugal

  • Itatake, Sweden

  • Jimjum Studios, Israel

  • LIVA Interactive, Tunisia 

  • Pale Blue Interactive, South Africa

  • Pine Studio, Croatia

  • Platonic Games, Spain

  • SMOKOKO LTD, Bulgaria

  • Spooky House Studios, Germany

Asia Pacific

  • Banjiha Games, South Korea

  • CATS BY STUDIO, South Korea

  • dc1ab pte. Ltd., Singapore

  • Dreams & Co., Thailand

  • Gamestacy Entertainment, India

  • izzle Inc., South  Korea

  • Limin Development and Investment Joint Stock Company, Vietnam 

  • Mugshot Games Pty Ltd,  Australia

  • Odencat Inc., Japan

  • Playbae, India

  • Xigma Games, India

  • XOGAMES Inc., South Korea

  • YOMI Studio, Vietnam


Thank you to everyone who participated and congratulations to the selected games and studios. Stay tuned for more updates on @GooglePlayDev.

Related Article

Grow your indie game with help from Google Play

Grow your indie game with the help from Google Play. Apply by July 1st for the Indie Games Accelerator and the Indie Games Festival.

Read Article

Get ready for #IamRemarkable Week with 5 remarkable stories

Most of us are taught we shouldn’t brag about our achievements — but is it bragging if you’re  stating facts? Judging from the looks of surprise I get when asking people to list their accomplishments, the answer to this question is often “yes.” But it shouldn’t be.

In 2016, I launched #IamRemarkable together with a colleague of mine. It is a global movement that empowers women and underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond.  Our 90-minute workshop helps participants learn to acknowledge, share and celebrate what makes them remarkable. 

To date, over 250,000 people from more than 150 countries have participated in an #IamRemarkable workshop with the help of 8,000 facilitators. And last year, over 30,000 participants took part in the first-ever #IamRemarkable Week: a digital experience celebrating diversity, inclusion and allyship.
Recap video of last year's #IamRemarkable Week.
10:25

Ahead of this year’s #IamRemarkable Week, running September 8-15 2021, we asked five of last year’s participants to share their highlights. 

Headshot of Erica Falkingham

Erica Falkingham - UK Sales Senior Sourcing Recruiter, Salesforce and #IamRemarkable facilitator 

I first learned about #IamRemarkable in 2019 and was instantly hooked. Finally, I could name the feelings I’d always had around imposter syndrome and gender modesty. Working in recruitment, I advocate for others on a daily basis, but I’m still working on doing the same for myself. During last year’s #IamRemarkable week, I learned that everyone — from public speakers to thought leaders —  struggled with self promotion. 

At Salesforce, we brought #IamRemarkable in-house to drive employee empowerment and allyship, and  we’ve seen incredible growth. We now have more than 100 internal facilitators, whose workshops have been attended by more than 4,000 employees across 16 countries.

Video of Salesforce case study based on #IamRemarkable workshops.
10:25
Headshot of Debo Harris

Debo Harris - Strategic Advisor, TheConfidenceVault.com and #IamRemarkable facilitator  

Women, Black women in particular, were among those hardest hit by the pandemic. It’s been an immensely challenging time for many of the women I know. While working from home has benefits, it also reduces  in-person opportunities for  self promotion. I wanted to help women feel less isolated and more confident when they returned to work once restrictions lifted, so I signed up to be a facilitator during 2020’s #IamRemarkable Week.

During my workshops, I asked participants to read “It’s NOT bragging if it’s based on facts!” out loud, three times in a row. Their voices became stronger and clearer each time. One participant smiled and said how good it felt. Seeing this impact was an amazing, humbling experience.

Headshot of Pedro Pina

Pedro Pina - VP, Head of YouTube Europe, Middle East and Africa 

Every leader should play an active role in building the culture where they work, and #IamRemarkable helps them do that by encouraging people to find their voice, inner strength and confidence. 

At Google, it’s helped us build stronger relationships with our partners. We share our learnings with them and they do the same in return, helping us all build richer company cultures where everyone belongs. 

Last year’s #IamRemarkable Week was an incredible experience for me. It’s not often people from around the world gather online to celebrate each other’s super powers. It makes you feel unstoppable. 

Headshot of Koro Castellano headshotSagar Kewalramani - Customer Engineer at Google and #IamRemarkable Week volunteer Sometimes I’ve felt like I have a lot on my plate, dealing with work and life responsibilities. I’ve wondered why I’ve had to sacrifice so much while others have it easier. But last year’s #IamRemarkable Week was an eye-opening experience for me. Learning about other people’s journeys and struggles really helped me overcome my own imposter syndrome and made me believe in myself and my ability to make a difference. This year, I’m looking forward to learning more about icons like Ibtihaj Muhammad, who overcame childhood obstacles, and Guneet Monga, who went into debt on her way to becoming an Oscar-winning producer in India.

Koro Castellano — Director of Prime Video for Amazon in Spain

During last year’s #IamRemarkable Week, I participated in a panel to talk about how I first fell in love with the initiative, how we ramped it up at Amazon and the positive impact it had on hundreds of colleagues. For me, it’s not so much about the individual as it is about how we can all help and support others. The incredible energy and passion around #IamRemarkable is what makes it so powerful, it has helped us confirm that we can do remarkable things together. 

In honor of this year’s #IamRemarkable Week, we put together an exciting program at Amazon, including discussion panels, career talks and daily exercises to help employees grow their self promotion skills. 

Headshot of Sagar Kewalramani

Sagar Kewalramani - Customer Engineer at Google and #IamRemarkable Week volunteer

Sometimes I’ve felt like I have a lot on my plate, dealing with work and life responsibilities. I’ve wondered why I’ve had to sacrifice so much while others have it easier. But last year’s #IamRemarkable Week was an eye-opening experience for me. Learning about other people’s journeys and struggles really helped me overcome my own imposter syndrome and made me believe in myself and my ability to make a difference. 

This year, I’m looking forward to learning more about icons like Ibtihaj Muhammad, who overcame childhood obstacles, and Guneet Monga, who went into debt on her way to becoming an Oscar-winning producer in India. 

#IamRemarkable Week 2021 is September 8-15, 2021. The agenda is jam-packed with empowering talks, thought-provoking panels, daily exercises and online workshops offered in multiple languages. You can sign up for one of the more than 10 talks from  influential thinkers, creators and business leaders — including Dr. Jane Goodall DBE, Luvvie Ayaji Jones and Dr. Rola Hallam — brought to you in cooperation with Talks at Google.

Empowering more women entrepreneurs in India

Despite the many strides in diversity and inclusion efforts in different industries in India and the world, we remain at some distance from true and proportionate representation of women in the workforce - be it in leadership, entrepreneurship or otherwise. 


This is a gap that we, at Google, are committed to closing through various efforts within Google and beyond, across all the communities we support. Our ongoing efforts to support women entrepreneurs are one of these.


2020 has brought back a sharp focus on health-tech and two founders selected from India for Women Founders Academy - Zealth-AI’s Monika Mehta and BrainSightAI’s Laina Emmanuel - are both tackling different challenges within healthcare. 


The Women Founders Academy, which is a twelve week program, offers the founders training to sharpen their leadership skills, build strong teams and address their unique growth needs. They will take part in workshops, connect with a community of Google advisors, venture capitalists and business executives and receive mentoring from dedicated subject matter experts. This year’s Women Founders come from 5 countries in Asia Pacific – India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Singapore. 


Getting to know the Indian women founders in the latest cohort:


In March 2019, Monika lost a close family member to an illness. The tragedy made her realize that our healthcare system relies heavily on patients being able to appreciate the severity of symptoms and taking swift action when necessary. Monika started Zealth-AI in July 2020 with the goal of creating a digital hospital-at-home solution that ensures timely interventions and better outcomes. 


In another part of the country, Laina’s BrainSightAI is building a neuroinformatics platform that uses technology to help answer questions about neuro-oncological and neuro-psychiatric disorders.


Laina says she has always been driven by complicated problems, conceptual thinking and like Monika, the dream of making a real impact. The work on operating system development and international health issues such as reducing maternal mortality has been a great way to combine Laina’s passions. She’s committed to continuing her hard work to make BrainSightAI a sustainable vehicle for change for more people. 


Along with Laina, Monika is inspired by the opportunity to connect with fellow women entrepreneurs and learning from a diverse pool of peers, mentors and experts through the Women Founders Academy program.


Posted by Team Google for Startups, India

Celebrating some of the best indie games

Posted by Patricia Correa, Director, Global Developer Marketing

Indie Games Accelerator - Meet the Class of 2021, Indie Games Festival - Meet the winners

In June this year we opened applications for our Indie Games Accelerator, a mentorship program to help top mobile game startups achieve their full potential, as well as for our Indie Games Festival, a competition open to small game studios who get the opportunity to win promotions and be featured on Google Play. These annual programs are part of our commitment to helping all developers thrive in the Google ecosystem.

We received thousands of applications from developers across the world and we were truly amazed by the response. We’re impressed by the innovation and passion of the indie game community, and the unique and creative games they bring to players worldwide.

Last month we announced the Festival finalists and today we hosted the finals.

This year, for the first time, the events were virtual so everyone could attend. Players from around the world joined the adventure, met the finalists, played their games, and cheered on the Top 10 and the winners as they were announced on stage.

We also took the opportunity to announce the Indie Games Accelerator selected class of 2021.

screenshot of Europe stage

Our deepest thanks to our amazing hosts: YouTube creator Papfi, Japanese comedians Kajisak and Kikuchiusotsukanai, and Inho Chung, who all shared their unique expertise and love of games.

Without further ado, here are this year's Festival winners…

Indie Games Festival Winners

Europe

Indie Games Festival Winners | Europe

Bird Alone by George Batchelor, United Kingdom

Cats in Time by Pine Studio, Croatia

Gumslinger by Itatake, Sweden

Korea

Indie Games Festival Winners | South Korea

CATS & SOUP by HIDEA

Rush Hour Rally by Soen Games

The Way Home by CONCODE


Users' Choice

Animal Doll Shop by Funnyeve

Japan

Indie Games Festival Winners | Japan

Mousebusters by Odencat

Quantum Transport by ruccho

Survivor's guilt by aso


Student Category Award

Japanese Train Drive Simulator 2 "OneMan2" by HAKOT


Check out the top 10 finalists in Europe, South Korea and Japan.

Indie Games Accelerator Class of 2021

The selected studios will receive exclusive education and mentorship over the 12 week program, to help them build and grow successful businesses.

Americas 


Aoca Game Lab, Brazil

Berimbau Game Studio, Brazil

Boomware Studio, Peru

Concrete Software, USA

Delotech Games, Brazil

DreamCraft Entertainment, Inc., USA

Ingames, Argentina

Ludare Games Group Inc., Canada

Whitethorn Games, USA

Asia Pacific


Banjiha Games, South Korea

CATS BY STUDIO, South Korea

dc1ab pte. Ltd., Singapore

Dreams & Co., Thailand

Gamestacy Entertinment, India

izzle Inc., South  Korea

Limin Development and Investment Joint Stock Company, Vietnam 

Mugshot Games Pty Ltd,  Australia

Odencat Inc., Japan

Playbae, India

Xigma Games, India

XOGAMES Inc., South Korea

YOMI Studio, Vietnam

Europe, Middle East & Africa


Cleverside Ltd, Belarus

Dali Games, Poland

Firegecko Ltd, United Kingdom

Hot Siberians, Russia

Infinity Games, Portugal

Itatake, Sweden

Jimjum Studios, Israel

LIVA Interactive, Tunisia 

Pale Blue Interactive, South Africa

Pine Studio, Croatia

Platonic Games, Spain

SMOKOKO LTD, Bulgaria

Spooky House Studios, Germany


If you missed the finals

If you missed the finals or would like to explore further, you can still sign in and wander around the space but only for a limited time. Explore now.

How useful did you find this blog post?

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Celebrating some of the best indie games

Posted by Patricia Correa, Director, Global Developer Marketing

Indie Games Accelerator - Meet the Class of 2021, Indie Games Festival - Meet the winners

In June this year we opened applications for our Indie Games Accelerator, a mentorship program to help top mobile game startups achieve their full potential, as well as for our Indie Games Festival, a competition open to small game studios who get the opportunity to win promotions and be featured on Google Play. These annual programs are part of our commitment to helping all developers thrive in the Google ecosystem.

We received thousands of applications from developers across the world and we were truly amazed by the response. We’re impressed by the innovation and passion of the indie game community, and the unique and creative games they bring to players worldwide.

Last month we announced the Festival finalists and today we hosted the finals.

This year, for the first time, the events were virtual so everyone could attend. Players from around the world joined the adventure, met the finalists, played their games, and cheered on the Top 10 and the winners as they were announced on stage.

We also took the opportunity to announce the Indie Games Accelerator selected class of 2021.

screenshot of Europe stage

Our deepest thanks to our amazing hosts: YouTube creator Papfi, Japanese comedians Kajisak and Kikuchiusotsukanai, and Inho Chung, who all shared their unique expertise and love of games.

Without further ado, here are this year's Festival winners…

Indie Games Festival Winners

Europe

Indie Games Festival Winners | Europe

Bird Alone by George Batchelor, United Kingdom

Cats in Time by Pine Studio, Croatia

Gumslinger by Itatake, Sweden

Korea

Indie Games Festival Winners | South Korea

CATS & SOUP by HIDEA

Rush Hour Rally by Soen Games

The Way Home by CONCODE


Users' Choice

Animal Doll Shop by Funnyeve

Japan

Indie Games Festival Winners | Japan

Mousebusters by Odencat

Quantum Transport by ruccho

Survivor's guilt by aso


Student Category Award

Japanese Train Drive Simulator 2 "OneMan2" by HAKOT


Check out the top 10 finalists in Europe, South Korea and Japan.

Indie Games Accelerator Class of 2021

The selected studios will receive exclusive education and mentorship over the 12 week program, to help them build and grow successful businesses.

Americas 


Aoca Game Lab, Brazil

Berimbau Game Studio, Brazil

Boomware Studio, Peru

Concrete Software, USA

Delotech Games, Brazil

DreamCraft Entertainment, Inc., USA

Ingames, Argentina

Ludare Games Group Inc., Canada

Whitethorn Games, USA

Asia Pacific


Banjiha Games, South Korea

CATS BY STUDIO, South Korea

dc1ab pte. Ltd., Singapore

Dreams & Co., Thailand

Gamestacy Entertinment, India

izzle Inc., South  Korea

Limin Development and Investment Joint Stock Company, Vietnam 

Mugshot Games Pty Ltd,  Australia

Odencat Inc., Japan

Playbae, India

Xigma Games, India

XOGAMES Inc., South Korea

YOMI Studio, Vietnam

Europe, Middle East & Africa


Cleverside Ltd, Belarus

Dali Games, Poland

Firegecko Ltd, United Kingdom

Hot Siberians, Russia

Infinity Games, Portugal

Itatake, Sweden

Jimjum Studios, Israel

LIVA Interactive, Tunisia 

Pale Blue Interactive, South Africa

Pine Studio, Croatia

Platonic Games, Spain

SMOKOKO LTD, Bulgaria

Spooky House Studios, Germany


If you missed the finals

If you missed the finals or would like to explore further, you can still sign in and wander around the space but only for a limited time. Explore now.

How useful did you find this blog post?

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Beta Channel Update Chrome OS

The Beta channel has been updated to 93.0.4577.69 (Platform version: 14092.46.0) for most Chrome OS devices. This build contains a number of bug fixes, security updates and feature enhancements.


If you find issues, please let us know by visiting our forum or filing a bug. Interested in switching channels? Find out how. You can submit feedback using 'Report an issue...' in the Chrome menu (3 vertical dots in the upper right corner of the browser).


Matt Nelson


Google Chrome OS

Stadia Savepoint: August updates

It’s time for another update to our Stadia Savepoint series, recapping the new games, features and updates on Stadia.

In August, Stadia Pro subscribers played through newly added games like PAW Patrol Mighty Pups: Save Adventure Bay, It Came From Space And Ate Our Brains, Epistory - Typing Chronicles, Killer Queen Black, Valkyria Chronicles 4 Complete Edition and GRIME. Claiming these titles within the growing Pro library of more than 20 games makes them easy to play instantly for as long as you’re a Pro subscriber. In addition, last month included Free Play Days every single weekend, with Pro subscribers getting the chance to play free games including Rainbow Six Siege, The Elder Scrolls Online and Far Cry 5.

A YouTube video features the launch trailer for Young Souls, a narrative RPG with action brawler elements that's available Only on Stadia.
10:25

In addition, all players were able to jump into new games that launched on the Stadia store, which now includes over 200 titles! Kids and their families are embarking on a platforming adventure in Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure and creating the ultimate football teams in Madden NFL 22. 

In HUMANKIND, players are forming new civilizations and competing against each other with the unique State Share integration. And available First on Stadia, Young Souls is sending players underground to fight hordes of goblins in a narrative RPG mixed with serious-brawler action.


The month of August also brought new Stadia features for players:

Direct touch on Android

Interact directly with a game using your phone’s touch screen by tapping, sliding and pinching with your fingers. Now available within HUMANKIND on Android, coming soon to iOS.

Explore tab on mobile

Check out a new social feed to share and view gameplay captures and game states using State Share, as well as news from the Stadia Community Blog.

Change Stadia username on web

Edit your Stadia account username to something new on web. Find more details within the Stadia Help Center.


Stadia Pro updates

August content launches on Stadia:

New content coming to Stadia announced in August:

That’s all for now — we’ll be back next month to share more updates. As always, stay tuned to the Stadia Community Blog, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for the latest news.



Use the “Inspect Groups” function to view a users direct and indirect group membership

What’s changing 

You can now quickly surface information regarding specific users and the groups they are part of directly in the Admin console. 
  • View direct and indirect members of a group: Enables you to see an expanded view of all memberships in a group. This allows to see a single view of all memberships for a nested group structure 
  • Check Membership: This allows you to validate whether a user is a member of a particular group. 
  • List all groups for a member: You can view a list of all groups a user is a member of, the email address or addresses associated with the group, and the group relation (indirect, direct, or both). See below for more information. 

Who’s impacted 

Admins 



Why it’s important 

In order to manage access to content and resources within their organization, Admins use numerous groups to ensure proper access for their users. This also involves nesting groups, adding another layer of complexity. 

This feature will give Admins a clear understanding of the group structures for any user in their organization, all in one place. We hope this feature makes it easier for Admins to take action on managing their users by providing all the necessary information, such as all groups a user is part of and their membership status. 



Getting started



Availability


  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Cloud Identity Premium customers
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers


Resources


Country Press Australia titles to join Google News Showcase

For decades, Google has been a proud supporter of the Australian media industry, providing hundreds of millions of dollars to media organisations through our products and services, training programs, partnerships and assistance with digital transformation. 

Earlier this year, we introduced our biggest investment to support the news industry yet - News Showcase and have signed more than 100 titles from across Australia with talks continuing with dozens more outlets of all sizes.  

Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve significantly expanded the number of regional outlets on Showcase, having reached a new in-principle agreement with Country Press Australia. 

Dozens of regional media outlets across Australia join Google News Showcase

Country Press Australia represents almost 180 independently owned regional and local newspapers and online platforms  across Australia.

Under the agreement, it’s expected that Google will welcome over 70 regional Country Press Australia news publications to Google News Showcase - a product and licensing program that pays publishers to curate content and build deeper relationships with readers.

Kate Beddoe, Google’s Director of News Partnerships APAC, said the agreement would support many titles that have operated in their local communities for decades, providing vital news and information to their regions. “We are very pleased to reach this agreement and welcome Country Press Australia outlets to Google News Showcase,” Ms Beddoe said. “We are also working with Country Press Australia to support the ongoing digital transformation of its members, helping with the sustainability of these news businesses.”

“We’ve helped support the news industry for two decades and Showcase is our biggest investment yet. We look forward to continuing to build on this important work in partnership with the Australian news industry,” Ms Beddoe said. 

Andrew Manuel, President of Country Press Australia, said the agreement recognises the vital importance of local news media to their communities. “Country Press Australia member newspapers provide an essential service to local communities and are vital to the local democracies being able to assist in holding those responsible to account," Mr Manuel said.  

“Local newspapers are often the only source of local news and provide a platform for informed public debate. This agreement will help sustain public interest journalism across regional Australia well into the future with a monetary exchange, innovation changes as well as enabling a sustainable online model for traditional newspaper publishers," Country Press Australia President Andrew Manuel said.The CPA members bring the total number of publications on Showcase globally to nearly 1000.

Google News Showcase launched in October 2020

Our work to support regional journalism through GNI

This investment  builds on our efforts to help support regional journalism through the Google News Initiative (GNI), which has increased the capabilities and revenues of newsrooms through training programs, direct funding and Google products.

In the past year, GNI rolled out a new pilot program, led by Publishing Fellow Neil Varcoe, helping small newsrooms digitally transform through skills training and the development of new sustainable publishing models. The program provided training to more than 1,500 journalists and 200 publishers. 

Through Project Kookaburra, we worked with media consultant Megan Brownlow, Buzzfeed Australia founder Simon Crerar and AAP Studios to help five regional publishers experiment with new business models and strategies to thrive in the digital age. The results showed publishers recording an increase in subscribers, advertising revenues and audience reach. We also worked with the Victorian Country Press Association to create a new digital advertising network across more than 80 regional publishers, enabling them to attract larger advertising customers.  

We look forward to continuing to build on this important work in partnership with the Australian news industry. 

Partnering with the financial ecosystem with Google Pay


In every geography where Google Pay is present, our stance is consistently one of partnering with the existing financial services and banking systems to help scale and enable frictionless delivery of financial products and services and contribute to the goal of financial inclusion. 


This vision has been consistent since our launch in India and several of our offerings are built on top of NPCI’s pioneering UPI payment network and infrastructure, which has grown over 190X in the last 4 years, to processing over INR 6 trillion in value today. 


At its core, Google Pay is a simple and secure mobile app for sending and receiving money, providing the functionality of a seamless payment experience, which is critical for consumers and merchants. Over the years, we have invested in efforts to bring the convenience of UPI to both online and offline merchants. 


Furthering that objective, in 2019, we had announced the launch of the Spot Platform on Google Pay, a surface for merchants of all types - offline or digital native, small or large, across use cases - to find payment-ready users. 


With more and more users embracing Google Pay in India, our Spot platform works as an additional discovery channel for many businesses to build and offer innovative new experiences to users to drive adoption of their services. The use cases span across ticket purchase, food ordering, paying for essential services like utility bills, shopping and getting access to various financial products. 


Today we have close to 400 merchant Spots on Google Pay, and in this journey, we have seen that financial product offerings perform especially well, with offerings from Spot experiences delivered by financial services players like CashE, Groww, 5paisa, Zest Money etc. seeing significant growth and engagement from users on Google Pay. This engagement underscores that payments platforms are a great surface to deliver financial services to users across the country. 


That being said, many of these Spot experiences especially in the financial products / service categories - be it insurance, wealth management, credit or other financial services - are regulated industries and each merchant is required to be duly authorised to provide those services before we onboard them on to the platform. As Google Pay, our role is firmly circumscribed to providing these merchants a surface where Google Pay users can discover and gain from these offerings - be it credit products, insurance or any others. 


There have been a few instances where these offerings have been reported as ‘Google Pay’s offerings’ which fuels misinterpretation. To be clear, we have always looked at our role firmly as a partner to the existing financial system that brings unique skill sets and offerings to drive further adoption of digital payments in the country.


The success of UPI and digital payments in India have opened many new opportunities for the financial services industry to partner deeply with fin-tech players in the country, and we are encouraged by the progressive and tech-positive approach of the regulators to drive greater financial inclusion. We are committed to play our role by using technology as a means to level social inequalities and contribute to this vision operating within the purview of India’s legal and regulatory frameworks.


Posted by Sajith Sivanandan, Business Head, Payments and NBU, Google APAC