Welcome to The Axis, your late look at payments news from around the world. Coverage includes Alipay’s findings for mobile payment behavior during the Lunar New Year celebrations in China. Paytm reportedly had the most Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions in January in India, Nets is teaming up with payment service provider Przelewy24 for a strategic alliance to serve the market in Poland, and Sri Lanka’s Mobitel introduced mCashQR to its mobile app.
Alipay released in an announcement statistics highlighting the mobile payment behavior of consumers from China over the country’s Lunar New Year celebrations. The company found that third- and fourth-tier cities outpaced top-tier cities like Shanghai and Beijing in terms of growth of “overseas consumption per capital” via the digital payment service. At the same time, Alipay found that travelers born between 1960-1969 as well as 1970-1979 served as the “main driving force in outbound tourism and overseas consumption.” Alipay Head of Business Operation Cross-Border Business Janice Chen said in the announcement, “We are excited to see the robust growth in the use of Alipay by overseas travelers from third- and fourth-tier cities and middle-aged vacationers.”
In Poland, Nets is teaming up with payment service provider Przelewy24 for a strategic alliance, the company said in an announcement. The move comes after Net’s Dotpay/eCard acquisition, and the company said it will attain a 51 percent stake in a group that would encompass Dotpay/eCard as well as Przelewy24. Nets Group CEO Bo Nilsson said in the announcement, “This strategic alliance increases our presence in the merchant services area in Poland, and in combination with our acquisition of Dotpay/eCard, we aim to further strengthen our presence in Poland through consolidation and strong commercial initiatives.”
And, in India, Paytm is said to have had the most Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions in January, the Economic Times reported. The payment service reportedly had over 221 million transactions during the month, compared to PhonePe and Google Pay at roughly 220 million transactions. While PhonePe told the outlet that it had 225 million transactions during the month, Paytm did not respond to the outlet and Google Pay did not offer detailed data. The outlet also estimated that the average UPI transaction ticket size for Paytm could be Rs 1,907 compared to Google Pay at Rs 1,200 and PhonePe at Rs 1,300.
On another note, Sri Lanka’s Mobitel introduced another part to its mCash mobile app called mCashQR, according to reports. Through the feature, which was recently rolled out, users can scan a quick-response code to conduct a transaction in a matter of seconds. The company said that iOS and Android users can download the updated mCash app and that mCashQR is said to come to more than 16,000 touch points for mCash across the island. In addition, recipients can receive the codes through social media or email, and retail spaces such as food outlets can also display the codes.
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