Scoop: Nick Fox to assume Bill Ready's Google role

Nick Fox, the vice president who heads up Google's long-term bets, will takeover Google's commerce, payments, and Next Billion Users businesses on an interim basis, Axios has learned. This change comes after Tuesday's news his predecessor, Bill Ready, will become CEO at Pinterest.

Why it matters: Google has access to an enormous pool of users, with an estimated 3.4 billion on its Chrome browser alone. Any commerce or payments product it could make would be a potential threat to other fintechs and e-commerce tech businesses.

Of note: On the payments side at least, Google has faced a lot of turmoil in recent years, muddying the company's ability to deliver its past vision. In March 2021, Caesar Sengupta said he would leave after 15 years with the company, which led to several others also exiting.

• It was after Sengupta's exit that Ready's role at Google — in which commerce and payments were run by one person — came into existence.
• That fits into a broader strategy for Google, in which it seeks to work with merchants and banks rather than as direct competitors to them. It has also sought to more closely tie its maps, e-commerce, ads, and payments products together.

Background: In nearly 20 years with the company, Fox has held a variety of roles. At one point, he helmed up the company's communication products, including Google Voice and Hangouts, as well as its Adwords unit.

• Fox will continue to report to Prabhakar Raghavan, senior vice president at Google. Raghavan was previously overseeing Ready, too.
• His most recent title was vice president for product and design, search and assistant

“Bill has played a key role in setting a new vision and strategy for Commerce and Payments at Google," a Google spokesperson tells Axios. "We will continue building on this strong foundation to make helpful, commerce experiences universally accessible for our users and our partners."