Paytm Android app users touched over 231 Mn in 2017 with massive 5.6 Bn sessions

Payment major Paytm Android app has grossed about 231.8 million (over 23 crore) users in 2017 with whopping 5.6 billion (560 crore) sessions. The number of Android app users has jumped over 117 million during the last year, a 102 per cent up from the previous calendar year.

The session for Paytm Android app recorded 244 per cent jump in 2017 as compared to 2016. It has witnessed over 4 billion sessions last year from 1.6 billion sessions in 2016. The information was shared by Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma via a tweet:

#GoogleData #PaytmAndroidApp #???????? pic.twitter.com/F6upVYjNXA

— Vijay Shekhar (@vijayshekhar) January 30, 2018

Post demonetisation in November 2016, Paytm usages skyrocketed as citizens opted digital payment during the cash-starved period. Besides demonetisation, splurge on advertising and cash back seemed to have also worked in accounting overwhelming users and sessions.

Th Softbank-backed company allocated Rs 500 crore for branding purpose in July last year. It estimated a 40 per cent rise in traffic across categories such as money transfer, bill payments, and movie ticketing business through the branding campaigns.

Two months ago, Paytm claimed that it recorded over 7 million transactions worth Rs 120 crore a day during November last year.

Importantly, the company had integrated UPI-based payment feature in November last year. It had claimed to have carried out 25 per cent of the total UPI transactions in November. The company claimed to drive 35 million transactions within the first month of integration with Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

UPI also appears to have worked for the Noida-based company in driving transactions as well as the session. Recently, Paytm has become the second company to become decacorn (with over $10 billion valuation) after Flipkart.

This week, existing and former employees reportedly sold out their equity at aforementioned valuation through a secondary sale.

Paytm is also claiming to achieve $14 billion GMV in the current fiscal.

Besides payment, the Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led company also has payments bank and e-commerce units. Earlier this month, it had incorporated fourth company – Paytm Money to offer financial services such as mutual funds, SIPs and among others. The Pravin Jadhav-led new entity will kick-off operations from March this year.