PhonePe maintains its UPI transactions lead over Google Pay in January

Digital payments major PhonePe has maintained its lead over Google Pay in terms of UPI transactions volume and value by a decent margin in January.

PhonePe had recorded 968.72 million transactions worth Rs 1,91,973.77 crore in January whereas Google Pay registered 853.53 million transactions amounting to Rs 1,77,791.47 crore during the month, data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) shows.

UPI had processed 2.3 billion transactions worth Rs 4,31,181.89 crore in January in which PhonePe and Google Pay’s contribution in volume was recorded at 42% and 37% respectively. Paytm, which has shifted its focus to payments banks, has recorded 281.18 million transactions worth Rs 33,909.50 crore. 

From January 2021 onwards, transactions in UPI that are not processed and settled through the UPI Central System are shown under the ‘On-us Transactions’ column. NPCI data shows 47.99 million in volume and Rs 3,930.67 crore as the value in the On-us transactions column for Paytm.

It appears that Paytm's On-us transactions are not included in the total UPI volume. Entrackr has sent queries to NPCI. We’ll update the story when it responds.

PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm collectively control more than 90% market share in the UPI ecosystem.

WhatsApp, which was allowed by NPCI to roll out its UPI-based payments feature for more users, has not been able to grow. Instead, the Facebook-owned company has registered a fall in its UPI transactions from 0.81 million in December to 0.56 million in January. However, it saw a rise in terms of the value of transactions from Rs 29.72 crore in December to Rs 36.44 crore in the last month.

It’s worth noting that WhatsApp has been facing criticism after it introduced its new privacy policy in early January. The company later delayed its implementation after a huge backlash over privacy concerns and claiming that it doesn’t share users contacts as well as UPI transaction data with Facebook.

WhatsApp’s new privacy policy also affected its download numbers in January when users across the world started migrating to alternative apps but that was short-lived. According to Sensor Tower data, WhatsApp had slipped to 5th position in January from its 3rd spot in December. During the period, WhatsApp’s alternatives such as Telegram and Signal surged ahead. It’s worth noting that Telegram was at 9th position in terms of downloads in December while Signal was not even in the top 10 list.