The meteoric rise of the Indian digital payments platform has been nothing short of magical. Right from the beginning the company has been breaking growth records almost on a daily basis. In a recent statement by Paytm, it was announced that the company had recorded 5.5 billion transactions in the financial year 2018-19, which had a gross total value (GTV) of above $ 50 billion. This growth in the number of transactions and the transaction value is being attributed to several factors, including an enhanced adoption of Paytm’s services both online and offline. According to the company, retail payments, utility payments, travel bookings, fees, games, entertainment and more have seen an increase in adoption of its services, which has led to such impressive performance form the platform in the last financial year. As per Statista, India’s digital payments market is valued at roughly $ 64 Billion in terms of the transfer value, where apart from Paytm the major players include Google Pay, MobiKwik, Walmart’s PhonePe and more.
Apart from the adoption of its digital payment services, Paytm also credited this growth to its new launch, the credit card service by the name of Paytm First. Though the company did not disclose the details of the transactions made through this service, it announced that the target is to increase the GTV from this avenue by more than double with help of over 12 billion transactions by the end of the financial year 2019-2020.
In the statement, Paytm also claimed that it had over 50% market share in the payment gateway segment, which places it “significantly ahead” of the competition, along with claiming to have the “largest customer base and largest volume.” While the figures weren’t disclosed for these claims, the company did claim that it processed more than 400 million transactions in a month.
Speaking of the current scenario, Deepak Abbot, Senior Vice President at Paytm said, “The company is focusing on growing its reach to tier 4 and tier 5 cities. We also want to offer tech-driven solutions, integrated customer life cycle management and improved customer experience.”
The growth of the core business of Paytm is good news for the company and gains even more important at a time when Paytm Mall, its e-commerce business, seems to be losing shape. Just this last month, a ₹10 crore loss for the company in a cashback fraud was discovered by EY. Furthermore, it seems to be on a slippery slope when it comes to market share in the e-commerce space, already going down from 5.6% to 3.4% from 2017 to 2018. According to Satish Meena, a Senior Forecast Analyst, “Paytm Mall’s positioning has not been very clear in terms of its offering — whether they are focusing on giving discounts to customers or looking at better customer service and why should customers come to them repeatedly.” He also says that Paytm Mall does not seem likely to survive in the face of competition from giants like Amazon and Flipkart, despite the company raising a new round of investment.
This puts all the more focus on the payments services off Paytm. At the moment, from its payments bank, the company has reported a profit of ₹19 crore, just in its second year of business and has claimed to have more than 19% in market share in the payments bank segment. The company also reportedly has 12 million merchants on board its digital payments platform, with an aim to expand to more than 20 million merchants by the end of the current financial year.
