PhonePe’s UPI market share rises to 46% in Oct; WhatsApp Pay’s struggle continues

Digital payments company PhonePe continues to widen its lead in the unified payments interface (UPI) ecosystem. The company increased its market share in October whereas its arch-rival Google Pay saw a minor dip in the last month.

According to data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), PhonePe has registered 1937.57 million transactions worth Rs 3,65,845.39 crore in October as compared to Google Pay’s 1451.93 million amounting to Rs 2,87,491.46 crore. 

Volume wise, UPI had recorded 4.21 billion or 421 crore transactions worth Rs 7,71,444.98 crore in October.

In terms of market share, PhonePe increased marginally to 45.92% in October from 45.2% in the previous month. During the same period, Google Pay’s market share declined from 35.42% to 34.41%. Collectively, the two players processed 80% of the all transactions in the last month.

While all three apps offer basic features like phone recharge, electricity bill payments and booking flights or trains tickets, PhonePe and Paytm also offer additional services like mutual funds payments, health and auto insurance. Recently, Google Pay has also tied up with SBI General Insurance to offer health insurance.

PhonePe has been able to dominate the UPI ecosystem as it aggressively focuses on merchant payments, especially small businesses and performed well as compared to its competitors.

Paytm Payments Bank and Amazon Pay remained in the third and fourth spot with 542.57 million transactions worth Rs 64,727.41 crore and 68.82 million transactions worth Rs 6,286.60 crore, respectively. Yes Bank apps have replaced BHIM from its fifth position in October. However, BHIM processed a higher amount [Rs 8,513.82 crore] than Yes Bank apps and Amazon Pay.

WhatsApp Pay recorded 2.6 million transactions worth Rs 104.19 crore. The instant messaging app remains one of the least used UPI apps. That said, it has gone past the 2 million transaction mark for the first time since its entry on the UPI bandwagon.

While NPCI’s regulation to cap the market share (in a phased manner) of all third-party apps to 30% from early next year, these apps are in their prime stage in terms of controlling the market. Download numbers-wise PhonePe, Google and Paytm rule the market. According to Sensor Tower data, the three apps were the most downloaded fintech apps in India with 11.2 million, 10.4 million and 7.4 million installs, respectively.