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Google Pay is adding international money transfers

Users in the US can now send money to India and Singapore.

Google

Google has been pushing people to its overhauled Pay app by retiring core features on the older version, including person-to-person transfers. Now, it's launching another update that should appeal to the millions of US users who regularly send money abroad. Starting today, Google Pay is rolling out international money transfers in partnership with established remittances companies Wise and Western Union. Currently, the option is only available for transfers to people in India and Singapore, but Google says it plans to expand the feature to over 200 countries by the end of the year.

To entice users, Google is offering free unlimited transfers with Western Union until June 16th, while Wise is ditching fees on the first transfer up to $500. The update sees Google diving into the valuable international remittances market, worth $470 billion, in a bid to take on rivals PayPal and Samsung Pay.

As it plays catch up, a number of digital wallet and fintech providers are already moving on to providing cryptocurrency trading in order to stay relevant in a fast-paced sector. The likes of PayPal, its subsidiary Venmo and Square's Cash App allow users to buy and sell Bitcoin and various other virtual currencies. Of course, Google will be aware of the trend, but whether it follows suit remains to be seen.