A new report titled ‘Wordline India Digital Payments 2019′ reports that UPI has become the most preferred way for digital transaction in India, witnessing a 188% year on year growth in transaction volume. Bengaluru topped the chart for the city with the most digital transactions, while Maharashtra bagged the first spot state wise, followed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi for the second, third and fourth place respectively.
UPI, a technology launched by the Indian government in 2016, has become the staple mode of online transactions, becoming the fastest platform to grow to 1 billion monthly transactions. The technology recorded 10.8 trillion(that’s 10.8 followed by 12 zeros) transactions in 2019, amounting to a total value of 18.36 trillion rupees(up by 214% on an year to year basis).The report said that “merchants in grocery, restaurants, fuel stations, apparel stores, and specialty retail recorded the highest volume share of transactions in 2019,” thus showing that the common Indian is moving to a smarter way of payment, moving just a little bit closer to the far fetched idea of a cashless economy.
The sudden sharp incline also came because of 9 more banks expanding their functionality to include UPI, registering a total of 143 banks to provide the facility now. With the already upward path that the technology was on, this decision was nothing but fuel for the fire.
Debit cards were the second most popular mode of online payment, registering 4.9 billion transactions(a 16% YoY growth) worth 6.8 trillion rupees, registering an yearly growth of 21%. Its counterpart, the credit card, was not very far behind as it amassed 2 trillion transactions, achieving a 20% YoY growth, which peculiarly came out to be worth 7.1 trillion dollars(a 33% YoY growth), 300 million more than the value of debit card transactions.
The 4 modes of payment, UPI, debit cards, immediate payment service(IMPS) and credit cards reported over 20 trillion transactions and total transactions worth over 54 trillion rupees, the report says.
UPI, since its launch in 2016, has become a household name, with the technology now an essential part of the Indian economy. UPI has eased online transactions for people who are a little slow on the Internet, and made an easy gateway for what can practically be regarded as the layman’s Internet banking.
