Fintech wars intensify as Paytm, Pine Labs, and PhonePe rivalry spills onto social media

Paytm Vs PhonePe Vs Pine Labs rivalry over marketing ads

The saying "one man's loss is another man's gain" resonates well in India's competitive fintech sector. In what appears to be a "moment-marketing" stunt, one of the largest merchant payment platforms Pine Labs took a jibe at Paytm's newspaper front-page ad on a national daily.

Pine Labs came up with their digital ad campaign saying, “The front page can be bought. Trust cannot".

The ad further said that around “One Million businesses across India count on Pine Labs to power their business in-store, one transaction at a time. Explore the range of our in-store solutions”.

Moment marketing?

Paytm's front-page ad came just a day after the embattled company partnered with Axis Bank for the settlement of merchant payments. Paytm had announced that it has shifted its nodal account to Axis Bank through an escrow account that it has opened with it.

Not to be left behind, PhonePe too weighed in on the Paytm crisis.

PhonePe’s founder and CEO Sameer Nigam on February 19 said that the fintech company does expect a good share of its rival’s customers to come onboard.

While he didn’t mention the big rival’s name, he was alluding to the ongoing Paytm regulatory fallout with the Reserve Bank of India. Further, he said the RBI’s actions were ‘proportionate’ as it came after multiple warnings to Paytm.

Catch up quick

On January 31, the RBI directed Paytm Payment Bank to stop accepting deposits, credit transactions or top ups in customer accounts, prepaid instruments, wallets, FASTags, and NCMC cards after March 15, other than any interest, cashbacks, or refunds.

The parent company of Paytm, Paytm QR, Soundbox, and card machines, will continue to operate for all its merchant partners, the company said in a released.

Netizens divided

Karthik Srinivasan,  former communications specialist of Ogilvy and Flipkart, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that Pine Labs' jab at Paytm is unwarranted.

“I fully understand that we are in a cut-throat, dog-eat-dog world. But even in such a world, there are perfectly civil ways to use a rival's misfortune (brought upon by itself) without alluding directly to the rival,” Srinavasan wrote.

“I hold no brief for Paytm and believe the RBI action, after multiple warnings, is appropriate, for taking compliance so casually. But this below-the-belt jab from Pine Labs seems unwarranted,” he added.

Arindam Paul, CBO of Atomberg Tech, tweeted that Pine Labs' ad was "classless and had a scarcity mindset".

‘Classless and reeks of the scarcity mindset ( you have to lose for me to win) so ingrained in most of us. There are better ways to promote your brand without demeaning your competitor,’  Arindam Paul, CBO of Atomberg Tech, wrote on X.

Classless and reeks of the scarcity mindset ( you have to lose for me to win) so ingrained in most of us

There are better ways to promote your brand without demeaning your competitor pic.twitter.com/1plzqY9a51

— Arindam Paul (@arindam___paul) February 20, 2024

 

The key of marketing is not using the right platform. But competing with your competitor with a strong message!! Wow#IndiaTrustsPineLabs#selfish#PaytmKaro#PaytmPaymentsBankpic.twitter.com/2IIjO2T0s4

— Abhijeet Devadiga (@abhijeetdevdiga) February 20, 2024

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While social media is divided on such marketing practices, Paytm is no stranger to taking such pot-shots on rivals for marketing.

Back in 2020, After Yes Bank was placed under moratorium by the Reserve Bank of India, PhonePe’s UPI services were severely impacted as it was relying on the bank’s UPI platform to process all of the payments done by its users.

Paytm Payments Bank from its official handle had tweeted that “Dear @PhonePe Inviting you to @PaytmBank #UPI platform. It already has huge adoption and can seamlessly scale manifold to handle your business. Let’s get you back up, fast!”.

Dear @PhonePe_ ,

Inviting you to @PaytmBank #UPI platform. It already has huge adoption and can seamlessly scale manifold to handle your business.

Let’s get you back up, fast!

— Paytm Payments Bank (@PaytmBank) March 6, 2020

Dear @PaytmBank
Inviting you to consider that if your #UPI platform was so 'seamlessly scalable', we'd have called you ourselves.

No point getting back up faster, if we have to desert our long term partners when they're down. Form is temporary, class is permanent.

— PhonePe (@PhonePe) March 6, 2020