Amazon Pay launches mobile wallet, set to partner with govt for bill payments

Escalating the further competition among payment players, Amazon Pay is set to make the battle fierce in India. The company plans to sign up government institutions such as electricity boards and insurance companies to create use cases for Amazon Pay outside its online marketplace, according to the Economic Times report.

The company, however, did not provide specifics on other players it plans to sign on to grow the wallet.

“We are always testing ways to improve experience for our customers and these experiments are part of that,” said an Amazon spokesperson in response to media queries.

Amazon Pay has also launched payments on online food delivery players like Faasos and Box8 and home services application Housejoy.

This new development comes soon after it got a prepaid instrument (PPI), or a wallet licence from banking regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) this April.

The report said the wallet is also directed at frequently transacting users and those from the tier-II locations and those on low-bandwidth networks to reduce friction in payments.

The company has also invested recently in point-of-sale machines and technology infrastructure for accepting digital payments on delivery and enabling one-click transactions.

Background report

Amazon has been gradually working in the payment pace for the past three years.

During December last year, Amazon India launched its online wallet Amazon Pay Balance, in a bid to increase cashless orders.

In October 2014, it launched its online payments service for third party sellers, Pay with Amazon in India. The launch was aim to provide payment solution to sellers across the country. With the service, they were able to integrate payments on their static websites and convert them into online stores, as per Amazon.

Amazon’s recent move is in sync with ongoing developments in Payment space where Alibaba and Softbank are pumping-in billions of dollars to build mobile wallet payment system in India. Paytm is undoubtedly the lead player in the category followed by players like Mobikwik and Flipkart's PhonePe.