India's Google Play Now Offers UPI Autopay Subscriptions

The availability of UPI Autopay as a payment option for subscription-based purchases made through Google Play in India was revealed by Google on Tuesday. In India, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has become a prevalent mobile payment method. In response to consumer demand, Google has recently enhanced its UPI capability. This action was taken after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) severely criticised the search engine giant.

In the South Asian nation, Google Play has implemented a new feature that allows automatic subscription-based transactions using UPI. This change comes after the tech giant introduced UPI in 2019 to pay for the Play Store's selection of applications, games, and other in-app content.

How can you pay with UPI?

When using Google Play Billing to subscribe to a recurring subscription, users can "Pay using UPI." UPI Autopay will also be available with accessible credit and debit cards, direct carrier billing, net banking, and gift card choices.

The internet giant isn't changing its billing structure, which implies that it will continue to receive commissions from sales made on a subscription basis.

Autopay UPI

To increase the number of UPI recurring transactions, the National Payment Corporation of India, the organisation in charge of monitoring UPI, introduced the UPI Autopay service in 2020. However, even though businesses like Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar have UPI Autopay enabled on their applications, there needs to be more interest. This action might encourage more recurring payments to switch to UPI.

Reserve Bank's regular payment guidelines

This came about as a result of a directive from the Reserve Bank of India requiring banks to notify customers two days before recurring payments. Because of this, businesses were required to delete credit card data by 1 October if a customer had yet to purchase by that date.

Thanks to a recent Google update, users can now choose UPI Autopay instead of credit cards.

CCI penalises Google Play

Google was penalised last month by India's antitrust regulator for misusing its control over the Play Store, and it was urged to let third-party payments for any other transactions made through the Play Store, as well as in-app purchases. As a result, Google decided to stop enforcing the use of the Play Store's transaction billing mechanism.

Google is experimenting with different forms of payment

To fend off regulatory pressure, the tech giant investigates substitute payment methods for the Play Store in South Korea, Japan, Australia, and the US.

Last year, Apple also launched UPI as a payment option for the local App Store. The Autopay feature for regular payments and processes needs to be supported, though.