Paytm’s ever growing digital payments service is continuing to see an even surging growth — thanks to company’s early entry into India’s gargantuan $8.5 Billion utility bill payments segment. And the company has released fresh statistics to prove how well it is doing in this particular segment.
With utility vertical comprising electricity, water, telephone and gas bill payments, Paytm is aiming to do a GMV of Rs 12,000-13,000 crore ($2 Billion) by tapping this lucrative space. The recently launched utilities and bill payments segment of Paytm is already witnessing a massive growth of 200 per cent month on month.
Paytm has already made tie-ups with around 30 power & water distribution companies and by the end of the next quarter, it seeks to double this number. The expansion will also cover state water distribution and piped gas boards so that the company can get access to an increased number of customers pan-India.
Kiran Vasireddy, Senior VP at Paytm said,
Our aim is to revolutionize digital bill payments in this country and we want to be one stop destination for all such payment needs. We are already witnessing high repeat usage considering the convenience that this service offers. . We will soon offer features like automatic bill reminders and one touch payment options. This will not only help people save late fee charges , but at the same time will improve cash flows of the utility companies”
By creating a new digital payments eco-system, Paytm is looking to expand its customer base from the present 120 Mn to 500 Mn by 2020. Last month, the company clocked around 2.5 million transactions in this segment and expects to have massive growth in the next few months.
Moreover, on numerous occasions has the company made clear, its intentions of pushing the digital payments business further and not the E-commerce one. One such instance is spinning out the marketplace to let Alibaba make use of it for India entry. The company will raise close to $300-$400 Million, specifically for that particular segment.
Paytm is also continuously venturing out into payment solutions for newer verticals, with the more recent ones being movie ticket booking, flight booking among others.
However, the path to establishing dominance and decimating other players in each of these domains is going to be a really, seriously tough one. The entertainment business for example has market dominators like BookMyShow — who virtually has a monopoly over this market. As for the domestic flight booking, you have the likes of Nasdaq-listed Makemytrip, ibibo and other smaller yet fierce players like Cleartrip, via.com among others.
