In a developing country like India, internet connectivity continues to be one of the big hassles for consumer-facing internet startups. So to cater to a larger chunk of the populous and expand its reach to rural areas which still might not have a perfect 3G connection, Mobikwik is giving its Android app a cleanse.
The mobile wallet platform has today announced the introduction of its redesigned Android app, which is now much lighter and toned down as compared to other wallet platforms. Biding goodbye to the old cluttered application, Mobikwik still packs all necessary features, including bus booking, recharge, utility bills payments etc.
The cleanse has toned the app size down to a meager 5 MBs, providing optimized and fast transactions(or ‘Kwik’ transactions, as stated by the company) to the consumers. The whole app has been simplified to provide a seamless user experience to the customer. You now have an option called ‘Search to Pay’, which allows you to easily transfer money to other wallet users, banks or merchants without having to manually input names or numbers(sounds impressive!).
In addition to this, the app allows you to access more relevant deals and offers based on your current location. It also provides you with an option to locate offline stores that accept payment via MobiKwik with just a tap of a button. This takes you to a map window which shows location pins accepting cashless payments.
Commenting on the launch of the claimed-to-be lightest mobile wallet in India, Upasana Taku, Co-Founder, MobiKwik adds,
This will create more stickiness for the users towards Mobikwik and will help increase per user transactions. Being the lightest app in India, users with a 2G connection or those who are using older phones with limited RAM, can also download MobiKwik within a minute. This will help more users in the interiors of our country to use our wallet, go cashless and avail other offers.
Mobikwik presently boasts to have over 32 million active users, and a network of 100k merchants empowering the digital wallet platform. But, it further plans to reach over 150 million users by the end of 2018.
The company however, is up against online payment heavyweights, specially Paytm. Paytm has a sound backing in the form of Alibaba, has a RBI-approved payments bank license and has a customer base — much larger when compared with that of Mobikwik.
Mobikwik, despite previously failing to acquire the licence to setup its own payment bank in India is taking the fight to Paytm in its own ways. The company recently added $50 million to its bank balance, led by Japan’s GMO Payment Gateway and popular Taiwanese semiconductor company MediaTek. A couple months ago, the company had also tried introducing an ‘annual profit’ scheme (in a bid to act synonymous to India’s beloved saving account, with a 6% yield). It was however been shut down after RBIs intrusion in the matter.
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