Exclusive: G-Pay records 541 Mn UPI transactions in May; PhonePe leads in P2M

After attaining new heights in terms of volume and value of transactions since October 2019, unified payments interface (UPI) recorded a slight fall in March, when lockdown was first imposed, and the volume of transactions tumbled 20% in April as a result of complete lockdown.

But cashless mode of payments got back on track in May and UPI registered 1.23 billion transactions amounting to Rs 2,18,392 crore or Rs 2.18 trillion -- the second-highest value of transactions for the NPCI-owned digital payments railroad since its inception in 2016. 

According to two Entrackr sources, Google Pay recorded 541 million transactions in May followed by PhonePe with 444 million and Paytm with 124 million. In the previous month, Google Pay’s volume stood at 430 million while PhonePe and Paytm did 365 million and 125 million respectively.

The surge in volume and value was mainly driven by the three companies which collectively control a 90% market share in UPI. If we put aside Paytm, which has reduced its dependency on UPI, Google Pay and PhonePe together have 80% control on the overall UPI transactions.

“Given that Paytm has shifted its focus to the wallet and direct bank transfers that include wallet, IMPS, NEFT and RTGS, Google Pay and PhonePe will have the natural lead on UPI and this also reflects in peer-to-merchant (P2M) mode of transactions in April and May,” said one of the sources who did not want to be identified.

Google Pay had more than 75 million transacting users in May followed by 60 million users by Flipkart-owned PhonePe, according to a recent report by TechCrunch. Paytm had 30 million transacting users last month.

Responding to Entrackr’s queries, Paytm also confirmed that the digital payments company had 10 million users transacting each day in May. We have also sent queries to PhonePe and Google Pay. The post will be updated as soon as we hear back from them.

“In the P2M UPI transaction, PhonePe maintained its supremacy in May and recorded 193 million in volume followed by Google Pay and Paytm with 182 million and 74 million transactions respectively,” said the second source. He requested anonymity as he’s not authorised to speak to the media.

To recall, PhonePe had processed 180 million in volume through P2M in April whereas Google Pay and Paytm’s respective transactions were recorded at 164 million and 69 million.

According to the person quoted above, Amazon’s payments arm Amazon Pay has also seen a significant increase in its transactions. “While overall transactions volume for Amazon Pay was recorded at 60 million in May, the P2M’s volume was at around 17 million in the month,” he added.