Android Pay hits Brazil and the Czech Republic

Contactless payments will be the norm everywhere sooner or later but there are still a lot of markets left for the platforms like Apple Pay or Android Pay to conquer for now. Back in May, we heard that Google's digital wallet platform was heading to a bunch of new markets. Now, two names from that list get full Android Pay support: Brazil and the Czech Republic.

This week, Brazil became the first Latin American country to receive Android Pay. In Europe, the service went live in the Czech Republic this Tuesday, and Slovakia is expected to follow soon. Google's Android Pay also arrived in Ukraine earlier this fall.

The official blog post about Android Pay's extended coverage mentions a few places where the service can be used in Europe today and the products one can get using it: the Kiev Metro tickets, various Czech bakeries and the Šumava bread, as well as the Albert supermarket and the traditional Kofola carbonated soft drink that has been introduced in the 1960s to replace Coca-Cola and continues to be very popular in the Czech Republic more than 50 years later.

Google released Android Pay back in September 2015 as the direct successor of the Google Wallet platform that was introduced in 2011. Although Google Wallet has been replaced by Android Pay in many areas, web-based Play Store purchases still use it. Google Wallet is still employed by some app-based peer-to-peer payments, but it will probably be discontinued in a year or two.

Next to Slovakia, South Korea is also expected to get Android Pay by the end of 2017. We will get back to it as soon as that happens.