No match for Paytm now, way ahead of its competitors

One97 Communications, the parent company of fintech giant Paytm, is headed for a $3 billion initial public offering (IPO), the highest ever market debut in India, and while the market leader has established its presence across a plethora of businesses, its competitors are only now exploring an expansion into other services. The company, which has been a public limited firm for long, is expected to list in the Indian stock market by November. The company has leveraged its multi-payment architecture, and sees revenues that are multiple times higher than any other company in the digital payments and financial services category. “Paytm’s strong merchant focus -- merchant and inventory integrations within the wallet, merchant point of sale, online payments and consumer cross-sell has led to a strong revenue base for Paytm versus its Upi-focussed competitors. Paytm earns 10X to 15X more revenue per active user, relative to its Upi-focussed competitor payment apps,” said a recent report by global analysis firm Bernstein.

In India, while most fintech companies have so far been targeting a particular business model, Paytm, led by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, has diversified its businesses from mobile, broadband, DTH recharges and P2P transfers and today offers a gamut of financial services. Within the payments space, the company operates its wallet, banking, UPI, postpaid services and much more. But it’s not just that. Paytm has gone on to add a plethora of businesses, Paytm Payments Bank, Paytm Payments Gateway, Paytm Payout, Paytm Money for democratizing wealth creation, Paytm Insurance, Paytm Postpaid, Paytm Credit Cards along with utility bill payments, offline merchant payments, content and gaming service. While it has established all of these businesses, its competitors are only now exploring an expansion into other services.n