Paytm records over 33% rise in UPI-based transactions, claims 68 Mn transaction in Feb

Following the expiration of the deadline for KYC, wallet companies including Paytm, MobiKwik, PhonePe and others have lost about 200 million users overnight. Anyway, wallet business is dying and Alibaba-backed company isn’t bothered about it.

Paytm has claimed that the number of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has registered 33.3 per cent growth in February over the previous month. While the total UPI transaction at Paytm stood 51 million in January, it touched 68 million last month.

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— Vijay Shekhar (@vijayshekhar) March 1, 2018

The Noida based company had integrated UPI on its platform in November last year. The UPI-based transaction has been growing significantly since the beginning of 2017. In January, the volume of the UP-based transaction had witnessed 38 per cent jump, however, it took a plunge last month with a mere 4.2 per cent increase.

Importantly, BHIM, which is a flagship product of government Digital India campaign has remained flat for the last four months as far as transaction volumes are concerned. However, BHIM hasn’t disclosed any data for the January month.

Currently, there are 67 banks live on UPI platform. However, a major portion of transactions are being driven by smartphone-based payment applications such as Google’s Tez, Flipkart-owned PhonePe, Paytm and BHIM among others.

Over the past couple of years, acceptance of digital payment modes has risen considerably. After demonetisation, usage of Paytm and other wallets registered hockey stick growth curve. Demonetisation and penetration of Internet have helped it to become the country’s second-most valuable online startup, with a valuation of around $10 billion, after Flipkart.

However, the scenario might not remain the same for long, especially after the arrival of global and deep-pocketed players like WhatsApp UPI, Google Tez and PhonePe amongst others.

Meanwhile, 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.