Both Google and Square clearly have PayPal in their sights. Both want to leverage their scale to get users on board their payments platform, starting with sending money by email. In the span of one week, both Google and Square announced that users could make payments over email – but not just any users. Google’s feature is being rolled out in stages: This feature will be rolling out to Gmail users ages 18+ in the U.S. over the next few months. Look for the $ icon in your attachment options. You can also get earlier access if your friends have the feature and send money to you. Bank Innovation got access through the kindnes of our insider pal, David Gerbino. Square’s service is even more exclusive, limited to just “friends.” The company told TechCrunch: We’re excited to share Square Cash with our friends. We’ll continue to invite others to try it out in the coming weeks. Private betas can make sense to work out bugs and kinks out of the public eye, but there’s nothing private about either of these launches. They actually seem calculated to generate buzz and desire among fintechnorati. This is reminiscent of the limited releases of Moven, GoBank, and most famously, Simple. Limit access, create [...]
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