WhatsApp Pay usage is finally on the rise in India
After a less than satisfactory start in India, WhatsApp Pay seems to be finally gaining momentum in terms of usage.
According to National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) statistics, WhatsApp Pay processed 0.81 million UPI transactions worth Rs 29.72 crore in December, representing an increase of over 100% in both volume and value in comparison with November. Something around the million payments is good, especially when you consider that these are the early days of WhatsApp Pay in India.
Rivals PhonePe and Google Pay processed 902.03 million and 854.49 million UPI transactions, respectively, in December 2020.
PhonePe outperforms Google Pay
A total of 2.2 billion transactions worth Rs 4.16 lakh crore were processed on UPI in December. About 40% of these payments were made to verified merchants and classified as peer-to-merchant (P2M) transactions, the rest were peer-to-peer or P2P transactions.
Walmart-backed PhonePe beyond Google Pay as a leader in UPI applications is significant. PhonePe made trades worth Rs 1.82 lakh crore, with a market share of 40%.
PhonePe and Google Pay, of course, dominate the UPI transaction segment, as together they accounted for about 80% of the total volume. This will of course come down this year as the 30% limit set by the NPCI comes into effect.
Payments Bank App, the third in the pecking order, processed 261.09 million payments.
In addition, banking apps such as those from HDFC, Axis and ICICI were among the 10 most used UPI apps.
NPCI’s OHIM application had 24.80 million transactions worth Rs 7,748.29 crore in December.