After launching a payment service for cell phone, cable, internet, electricity and water bills in Canada last year, Paytm is set to launch a mobile digital payment in Japan. The fintech platform will launch the service in collaboration with Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank.
The duo of SoftBank and Paytm plan to take technology to a new level where they will extensively use artificial intelligence for mobile payments and other financial services.
For SoftBank, the plan is to capture the payment technology market in the country in an initial phase. Instant-messaging platform Line Corp and e-commerce platform Mercari Inc are the two platforms which are currently offering the digital payment service in the country.
SoftBank, which is one of the biggest mobile service providers in Japan, can easily use the technology to introduce financial services such as lending, insurance and other services through its wireless carrier service.
With the debut of the service in Japan, SoftBank also aims to open itself for international markets in digital payment segment.
Meanwhile, with the collaboration, Alibaba and SoftBank-backed Paytm, which has global ambitions, will be able to continue expanding its reach.
One97 Communications Ltd, which owns the Paytm brand, raised $1.4 billion from SoftBank last year in exchange for a 20 per cent stake.
From a mobile wallet platform to payments bank to forex service provider, Paytm has evolved into a complete fintech platform in the past few years in India. The expansion of its service in other countries opens a whole lot of opportunity for the platform to provide a complete fintech solution to its users.
The development was first reported by ET.
