India Launches UPI In Mauritius & Sri Lanka: Exploring UPI's Evolution & Global Comparisons
Prime Minister Modi launched Unified Payment Interface (UPI) services in Sri Lanka and Mauritius today. Additionally, RuPay card services are set to be introduced in Mauritius.?
The first UPI transaction has already been conducted by an Indian national in Mauritius, ANI reported.
The launch is expected to enhance digital connectivity between countries, providing a faster and seamless digital transaction experience that will benefit a broad cross-section of people.?
As India's digital payment system goes global, one country at a time, let's look at the evolution of UPI itself.?
From humble beginnings to world's largest real-time payment market?
From humble beginnings in 2016, UPI has definitely come a long way.?
Using a unique virtual payment address (VPA) that is linked to a customer's bank account, UPI allows customers to transfer money instantly between bank accounts using their mobile phones.?
By 2020, India had become the world's largest real-time payment market with 25.50 billion annual transactions - ahead of China and United States.?
In August of 2023, India had achieved a milestone of 10 billion UPI transactions for the first time.?
By December of the same year, UPI accounted for 62% of digital payment transactions in FY 2022-23.?
List of countries adopting UPI?
With the Indian government promoting the expansion of UPI, a number of countries are adopting the digital payment system.?
These includes countries such as: Singapore (March, 2020); Bhutan (July 2021; First country outside India to enable UPI transactions using BHIM app); Oman (2022); Nepal (2022); UAE (2022), Singapore (February, 2023), Malaysia (April, 2023) and France (2024).?
Back in 2022, Ashwini Vaishnav, the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, had mentioned that India was engaging in discussions with 30 countries concerning UPI.?
Who is the market leader in digital payments in India??
The frontrunners in the digital payment landscape in India are PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm.?
In terms of UPI transactions count (March 2022 data), PhonePe was the market leader at 46.7%, followed by Google Pay at 34% and Paytm at 15.4%. On the other hand, BHIM had a 0.46% share.?
In terms of UPI transaction value as well PhonePe was the leader at 49.07% followed by Google Pay and Paytm at 35.2% and 9.9% respectively.?
By 2023, with a 50.2% market share, PhonePe became the leading UPI app in India.?
What sets India's UPI apart from that of US, China & other countries?
In the United States, popular digital payment apps are Apple Pay and Pay Pal.?
In China, WeChat is the most widely used multi-purpose app within China, which includes the function of payment.
What sets India's UPI payment system apart from those in the US, China, or other nations is its unique status as a public-private partnership (PPP) led by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).?
This interoperable platform has been embraced by fintechs, banks, and telecommunications companies, contributing significantly to the growth of UPI.?
The success of this PPP has propelled India ahead of China and the US in the realm of mobile payments, facilitated by the widespread adoption of QR code placements at merchant point-of-sale (POS).? ? ??
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