Paypal plans Upi-based e- payments

On the heels of Whatsapp getting key approvals to launch digital payments in India, its US peer Paypal is also set to jump on the bandwagon.

One of the biggest international remittance services in the world, Paypal Holdings, Inc. will launch a peer-to-peer (P2P) payments feature in India, sources in the know of the company’s plans said. The service is based on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) — India’s indigenous digital payments network — and will roll out in the ‘coming months’. The move pits Paypal right up against Paytm, Google Pay, Phonepe, and a few others, and comes at a time when digital payments adoption is on the rise. Transactions via UPI doubled in 2019; in 2018, it had grown five times.

This is the first time Paypal is experimenting with P2P. It has so far offered Indians the facility to transfer money to international bank accounts and pay at select merchant sites in India. A Paypal India spokesperson said: “As a policy, we do not comment on any market speculation.”

Experts said Paypal was perceived to be late in rolling out consumer payments. “India is going to be one of the biggest P2P payments markets in the world,” said Mahesh Makhija, partner and leader-digital and emerging technology group, EY.

According to company figures, Paytm logs over 500 million monthly transactions, Phonepe 70 million, while Google Pay has amassed 67 million monthly active users. The competition will further increase when Whatsapp, which has 400 million users, will launch payments.