Today when we think of online transactions, most of us think first of UPI based payments -- whether it is Google Pay, or PhonePe or BHIM or even PayTM. The payments infrastructure has surely risen to great heights, crossing 2 billion transactions just last month.?
And amidst all this, Walmart-funded PhonePe has managed to surpass Google Pay in terms of the most volume of UPI transactions. PhonePe recorded a whopping 835 million UPI transactions in the month of October whereas Google Pay maxed out on 820 million.?
This was revealed by PhonePe who has also confirmed that it held a ¡®market-leading position¡¯ with over 40 percent of all UPI transactions that occurred in October.? It also revealed that it had over 925 million transactions last month with over a 100 million active users, as well as 2.3 billion app sessions. The total payment volume run rate went as high as $277 billion.?
Sameer Nigam, chief executive and founder of PhonePe said in a statement, ¡°We are on a mission to make digital payments a way of life for every Indian citizen, and our next target is to cross 500 million registered users by Dec 2022. In line with our brand ethos of ¡®Karte Ja. Badhte Ja,¡¯ we continue to launch new and innovative products for every strata of Indian society, as well as enable digital payment acceptance across every merchant in every village and town in India.¡±
PhonePe has also recently introduced its Switch platform which basically runs web apps from its app for certain apps, helping them transact through its payment services. The platform currently supports services like Ola, Myntra, IRCTC, Goibibo, Oyo and even Redbus. Moreover, it also has a wide net of offline merchants around the nation -- over 13 million outlets spread across 500 cities nationally.?
This surely indicates that the competition between UPI players in India is as fierce as it gets and it is expected to get more cut-throat with several other brands, including Facebook¡¯s WhatsApp -- India¡¯s most popular texting platform -- joining the bandwagon.