We’ve recently seen a form of Google Play Gift Cards roll out in Australia in a limited capacity in what appears to be an exclusive arrangement with Telstra that gives a $50 Gift Card to new contract holders. New job listings from Google show that they’re looking to expand Gift Cards not only to Australia, but Canada and beyond.
The first advertisement on the Google Jobs page is for a Mountain View, CA based position – a Retail Partner Manager, with ‘Knowledge of Canadian and/or Australian markets and retail landscape’ and mentions that ‘Experience in gift card segment and/or digital content would be a plus’. The job advert says:
The Google Play team is looking for a creative and talented professional to lead the marketing and distribution efforts of its gift card business in Australia and Canada (based in Mountain View, CA). The Retail Partner Manager, Gift Cards will develop and execute on strategies to grow the Google Play gift card business. You will be energetic, hands-on and detail-oriented, with a track record of success
A BA/MBA degree or 4 years of relevant experience are required to apply for the position but if you’ve got that, you can apply from the Google Jobs page.
The Google Play Gift Cards support page currently lists Gift Cards as only being available in the United States, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, so this would add another two countries to the list. It appears that Google doesn’t want to stop there, though.
Another advertisement in the Google Jobs site is for a Project Manager, Google Play Gift Cards. It’s also based in Mountain View, CA and the purview of the Project Manager is to launch cards ‘in new regions and manage building out key resources to help the team scale with the growing business’. More information from the job listing:
The Google Play team is looking for a creative and talented professional to drive key projects for the Google Play Gift Cards business. The Project Manager, Gift Cards will help to launch cards in new regions and manage building out key resources to help the team scale with the growing business. You will be energetic, hands-on and detail-oriented, with a track record for driving projects to help build and maintain business operations.
A BA/BS degree or relevant skills or equivalent experience is accepted in lieu of the degree and the successful applicant also requires ‘Experience in project management’.
A third listing for a position based in Tokyo, Japan is seeking a Strategic Partnership Development Manager, Google Play APAC. The listing shows that as well as developing partnerships involving Google Play Gift Cards, the successful application will also be looking to expand distribution/affiliate partnerships as well as partnership promotions. One of the key responsibilities will be to ‘Establish partnerships with integrators and retailers to launch Google Play gift card business in Japan and other key markets in Asia’.
These three job listings show that Google is looking to expand their Google Play Gift Card initiative on a massive scale. The availability of Gift Cards to Android users who do not have a Credit Card or access to carrier billing is key to expanding the profitability and reach of the Google Play store.
There was a pretty big outpouring of support from people in our comments when the Redeem Gift Card option became available in Google Wallet, as well as appearing in the Google Play Store App, so there is definitely a market here for it and I imagine Canada and other regions as well.
Note that if you apply for any of the jobs and land one, you are of course required to tip us at every opportunity. 
Are you willing to move to the US to work for Google? Are you looking forward to giving or getting Google Play Gift Cards? Let us know in the comments!
