Paytm vs Google Pay vs PhonePe: Who is winning?

With the onset of demonetization in 2016, digital payment has seen quite a surge. Based on “Fintech in India- Powering mobile payments”, a report by global advisory KPMG, the augmentation in mobile payments has reached 10M+ in three years. The troupes in this market are manifold, but currently, three of them are nip and tuck.

Here are some key facts and milestones around these payment leaders:

Paytm

Paytm is the wunderkind of One97 Communication Ltd. marketed by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2010. Initial functionalities included bill payment for mobile, DTH service, and online purchase. Since then, Paytm has evolved as a sophisticated mobile payment application with a recorded 250M+ users in the mere extent of 8 years and a robust capacity of 5000 transactions per second.

In 2018, Paytm’s glorious stint became the theme of a case study at Harvard Business School.

Features:

• RBI approved secure e-wallet
• Zero banking charge
• Utilities: Payments bank, ticket booking- flight, train, bus & movie, UPI Payments, etc.
• Transaction limit: 1L for wallet & 1L+ for UPI bank transfer

Google presented its first digital payment app in 2017 founded on NPCI’s UPI platform. Originally branded as Tez, the app was later rebranded as Google Pay. It was an instant hit among the Indian users with 8.5M installations. In a record time of 40 days, 30M transactions were performed.

According to Sajith Sivanandan (Managing Director & Business Head) at Google Pay, “The company’s growth has tripled in terms of monthly active users and are at 67M monthly active users as of September 2019.”

Features

• Available on Android & iOS
• Zero banking charge
• Utilities: UPI payments, Bill payments- phone, DTH service, gas, ticket booking- train, bus, flight etc.
• Transaction Limit: More than 1L

PhonePe was engendered by former Flipkart employees Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari in 2015. In August 2016, PhonePe was the 1st Android app providing UPI based user services. In 3 months, the app showed a record-breaking download crossing 10M users. PhonePe also hit the 50M badge on the Google Play store swiftly.

A bump on the road was encountered in January 2017 with blockage from ICICI bank and Airtel for violation of NPCI regulations. This resulted in closing operation on Flipkart as well. This legal feat was however resolved in February 2017.

Features:

• Bill Payments, DTH recharge, ticket bookings
• UPI transactions
• Zero banking charge
• Transaction limit:10000 for wallet and 1L for UPIAt this stage, it’s impossible to predict who will the race in digital payments. Based on the Economic Times Report, Google Pay leads in terms of aggregate transaction values for payment (Google Pay-55,000Cr, PhonePe-44,000Cr, Paytm-38,200Cr). Paytm however has a higher market share than the competitors. Bloomberg report 2019 states that PhonePe poses a valid threat with increased 290M transactions. Based on efficacies and market value, all three seem to be at a deadlock of sorts.