Google is more deeply entering the arena of financial services by offering a checking account to individuals via a partnership with Citigroup. The project is named Cache is expected to launch in 2020 with Citibank and a small credit union at Stanford University.
This is yet another step towards more dominance from Big Tech and the use of data as Google follows closely what is happening with other tech titans such as Facebook and Apple. Apple recently rolled out the Apple Credit Card and Facebook of course continues to pursue the Facebook Libra cryptocurrency. Libra is in reaction to the enormous of success of Bitcoin. They are all also chasing the success of the Square Cash App and similar products like Venmo. Banking is going mobile, low cost, and convenient, and Google wants in on the action.
Financial services firms generated more than 25 times the annual revenue per customer than does a Facebook as an example, so the motivation is obvious. There has also been a startling lack of innovation in payments and financial services as the existing titans have been milking the same cow for decades with protection and help from Washington DC along the way. Google, already squashing the publishing industry with no click searches, looks to do the same to financial services and hotel bookings among others.
