Google said Thursday it plans to roll out the SoundPod, its portable speaker designed to instantly validate and announce successful payments, to small merchants across India over the coming months.
The company, which began a limited trial of SoundPod last year, received positive feedback during the testing and helped merchants reduce the checkout time, Ambarish Kenghe, VP of Products for Google Pay, wrote in a blog post.
These tiny jukeboxes, popularly known as sound-boxes in the local market, have seen wide adoption in the country, helping merchants gain peace of mind when they have received a payment and dispute any fraudulent claims. Financial services firm Paytm currently leads the soundbox market and PhonePe is also increasingly expanding its Soundbox. More than 20 million merchants in the country already use one of these boxes, which industry insiders estimate costs about $18-$20 to make.
Google Pay is offering the SoundPod at a minimal cost — levying a one-time fee of $18 for one year, or a one-time fee of $6 and six cents per day for 25 days in a month. The company said merchants who use SoundPod to process 400 payments in a month will get $1.5 in cashback.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
