UPI, a service that was introduced in India just a few years ago, has become an integral part of India’s thriving digital economy. Google Pay was one of the first apps to introduce this feature, and thus by default, has been the leader of the market up until now. However, it looks like it’s time for the titan to leave its throne for a new champion, as Walmart’s PhonePe has reportedly zipped past Google’s app, to assume the “market leader position.”
Google Pay has been leading the market ever since the technology came into being, due to its early entry in the market. However, just as the technology reaches the milestone of 2 billion transactions per month, PhonePe seems to have surpassed its rival, noticing 835 million UPI transactions in the month of October. The company mentioned in a press release that it has “a market leading share of over 40%.”
Google did not respond to our questions, or about PhonePe’s claim to have a leading market share, which makes us believe that its offering-Google Pay has been bested.
However, that’s not all. PhonePe also operates a wallet service (much like Paytm), while Google Pay does not. Therefore, overall, the company processed 925 million transactions last month and had over 100 million monthly active users. It also managed to cross the 250 million registered user milestone, with an Annual TPV Run-rate of $277Bn.
“We are on a mission to make digital payments a way of life for every Indian citizen, and our next target is to cross 500 million registered users by Dec 2022. In line with our brand ethos of ‘Karte Ja. Badhte Ja,’ (Hindi for keep working and growing) we continue to launch new and innovative products for every strata of Indian society, as well as enable digital payment acceptance across every merchant in every village and town in India,” said Sameer Nigam, chief executive and founder of PhonePe, in a statement.
This happened just as UPI reached the milestone of 2 billion transactions in a single month, thanks to the upcoming festive season. The official twitter handle of BHIM UPI claims that October 2020 was its biggest month yet, with 2.07 billion transactions completed in the last 31 days, with a total transaction value of ₹ 3,86,106 Crores. In comparison, September 2020 witnessed just 1.80 billion transactions (with a total transaction value of ₹ 3,29,027 crores), while August 2020 had 1.61 billion UPI transactions (with a total value of ₹2,98,307 crores).
BHIM UPI has managed to change the face of person-to-person and person-to-merchant money transfers in the past few years while making them safer and more secure. #BHIMUPI #UPIChalega #DigitalPayments @dilipasbe pic.twitter.com/INjptjBEf7
— BHIM (@NPCI_BHIM) November 1, 2020
