Google Wallet is not coming to Australia anytime soon, with the company's boss in the country declaring she has "more exciting" things to concentrate on.
Google first launched its Wallet in the US in 2011 to a wave of expectations, with many predicting that the Web giant would kick-start the mobile payments revolution, taking on the established payments players.
But the service has failed to live up to its billing, in part thanks to a limited number of compatible handsets and the refusal of telcos AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon to back it.
Last year the firm switched tactics, moving away from its initial emphasis on NFC and concentrating on things such as P2P payments and loyalty in the hope of reaching more users, including iPhone owners. The company is also embracing host card emulation as a way of bypassing the uncooperative telcos.
However, there appears to be little appetite to push Wallet outside the US. Despite rumours as far back as 2012 that it could come to the UK in the time for the Olympics, three years after launch the service is still only available to Americans.
And Google's managing director in Australia, Maile Carnegie, has made it clear that she has little interest. Carnegie is quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald as saying: "I have no plans to launch it [Google wallet] in Australia. My job is to really look and say, 'what are the big problems or opportunities to solve in Australia?' and there are much more exciting things on my plate."
Carnegie did not criticise the product, instead claiming that the "innovation ecosystem in banking here is actually incredibly robust" and so efforts are better concentrated in other areas.