UPI,four-year-old payment infrastructure, reached 2 billion transactions last month, exactly one year after reaching the 1 billion monthly transactions mark.
Walmart’s PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm, and Amazon Pay are driving the transactions for UPI, which has become the most common digital payment method in India thanks to its open architecture that enables interoperability between all participating payment applications.
“In an earlier interview, Dilip Asbe, chief executive of NPCI, the payments body behind UPI, said,” Unlike China, we have provided equal opportunities to both small and large domestic and foreign companies. In October, the 2.07 billion UPI transactions had a volume of $51.9 billion, up from $25.7 billion in October 2019. As said earlier that NPCI aims to expand UPI outside India
Google Pay did not push the majority of UPI transactions for the first time in more than a year. In October, PhonePe reported 835 million UPI transactions, it said, while according to individuals familiar with the matter, Google Pay hit around 820 million.
Some 245 million transactions were registered by Paytm, while Amazon Pay settled with around 125 million, the individuals said.
“In a statement, PhonePe reported that, with over 40 percent of the market share in UPI, it assumed the” market-leading position. Google did not respond to a request for comment immediately.
Google Pay had about 75 million transacting users in May, ahead of PhonePe’s 60 million and Paytm’s 30 million.
Both Paytm and PhonePe also run a wallet service, unlike Google Pay. UPI does not power the wallet service. PhonePe said it handled 925 million transactions total last month and had over 100 million active users every month.
As more offline stores open up and merchants and customers opt for a digital alternative to complete purchases, PhonePe has recently seen a surge in its transactions. A variety of funding options have also been added to the app, including 600,000 insurance plans, it said.
We are on a quest to make digital payments a way of life for every citizen of India, and our next aim is to reach 500 million registered users by Dec 2022. In line with the ethos of our brand, ‘Karte Ja. We continue to launch fresh and creative products for every layer of Indian society, as well as allow digital payment acceptance across every merchant in every town and city in India,’ said Sameer Nigam, PhonePe’s chief executive and founder, in a statement.
And as more players are expected to enter the race, things are about to get tougher. In 2018, WhatsApp, which in India has over 400 million users, began testing UPI payments on its app. However, it remains trapped in a regulatory labyrinth, which has stopped it from rolling out WhatsApp Pay to most of its users in the country.
