In a sign that digital payments are gaining traction in India, news came Monday (Oct. 1) that Paytm, the largest payments firm in that country, and owned by One97 Communications, makes up the largest contribution to UPI Payment.
Alibaba and Paytm said the latter had registered as many as 137 million transactions across UPI, which gives the firm a 33 percent market share.
That comes, reported The Economic Times, as the total number of transactions was up 30 percent month on month in September, to nearly 406 million transactions, estimated the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
The parent company, One97 Communications, has said it has been enabling what is known as BHIM UPI (BHIM is short for Bharat Interface for Money) for offline payments, with reach that extends to five million merchants that accept Paytm UPI.
In a statement, Deepak Abbot, who serves as senior vice president at Paytm, said that “it is encouraging to see the widespread adoption of Paytm BHIM UPI, as it is fast becoming a preferred payment method for millions of users, making us the leader in UPI payments.”
As noted via the company’s site, BHIM UPI availability had been announced in November of last year. In that announcement, the company had said that “we aim to be the country’s largest issuer and acquirer of UPI.” In terms of mechanics, users create their own Paytm BHIM UPI identifications on the app, which have a default choice of the user’s mobile number. Savings bank accounts can then be linked to those IDs.
On Oct. 1, the company noted that more than 20 percent of payments via Paytm were made using BHIM UPI for mobile recharge and for paying utilities, such as electricity and water bills.
As had been reported in August, One97 received an investment of roughly $300 million from Berkshire Hathaway, famed as Warren Buffett’s investment vehicle. Other notable investors in the firm include Ant Financial, SoftBank and Alibaba.
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