Tag: paytm

Google Pay to Roll Out SoundPod With Audio Alerts to Merchants in India After Year-Long Pilot

Google is rolling out the SoundPod — the company’s wireless speaker that can verify payments received over the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) instant payment system — to small merchants in India, the company announced on Thursday. The company started testing the device as part of a limited trial last year and has revealed that the rollout will take place later this year. Google Pay rivals PhonePe and Paytm — the latter faces RBI strictures over non-compliance with multiple rules — already offer similar products for merchants in the country.

In a blog post on Thursday, Google VP of Products for Google Pay Ambarish Kenghe announced that the company’s SoundPod would be rolled out to small merchants in the country “over the coming months”. During Google’s year-long trial of the SoundPod in India, the firm received positive feedback from merchants who participated in the trial, including faster checkouts, Kenghe said.

The SoundPod is equipped with an LCD screen and a single speaker. It supports 4G connectivity, according to Google. It has three LED indicators to show battery, charging, and connectivity status of the device, and features menu, volume, and power buttons.

The SoundPod has an LCD display and speaker that face the merchant
Photo Credit: Google

 

Paytm’s ‘Soundbox’ speakers offer between four to 12 days of battery life and feature 2G or 4G connectivity — two models are equipped with LCD screens, while another supports music playback over a Bluetooth connection. On the other hand, PhonePe’s SmartSpeaker offers up to four days of battery like on a single charge and supports multiple languages.

While the company hasn’t offered a concrete timeline for the arrival of the SoundPod in India, rivals like Paytm and PhonePe offer similar audio devices that are already in use by merchants across the country. Merchants also pay a monthly subscription — between Rs. 50 to Rs. 125 — to access these audio-based announcement service.

Google says that merchants will be able to choose between two subscriptions for the SoundPod — a Rs. 499 one-time fee followed by a Rs. 125 monthly subscription plan, or an annual subscription priced at Rs. 1,499. Merchants won’t have to pay the one-time fee when choosing the annual plan. Customers who receive 400 payments in a month via QR codes will get a guaranteed Rs. 125 cashback, according to the company.

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EPFO to Halt Claims Made via Paytm Payments Bank Following RBI Restrictions

India’s state-run social security fund will halt claims made via Paytm Payments Bank accounts from Feb. 23, as the country’s central bank imposed restrictions on the payments bank due to persistent irregularities, a government order said.

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has asked its officers to refrain from accepting claims linked with accounts in Paytm Payments Bank, an associate of One 97 Communications, according to the order, which was reviewed by Reuters.

The order was issued by the EPFO on Thursday, which comes under India’s Ministry of Labour and Employment.

The move comes after the Reserve Bank of India, last week, directed Paytm Payments Bank to stop accepting new deposits in its accounts or digital wallets from March, citing supervisory concerns and non-compliance with rules.

The EPFO — which has a corpus of over 18 trillion rupees ($216.89 billion) covering nearly 300 million workers — had allowed Paytm Payments Bank to settle claims in November 2023.

The state-run social security fund also overseas workers’ pension funds.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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WhatsApp to Offer Card Payments, Services From Rival Digital Payment Providers in India

WhatsApp said on Wednesday that it will offer credit card payments and services from rival digital payment providers within its app in India, the latest bet by the Meta-owned service to boost commerce offerings in its biggest market. WhatsApp has more than 500 million users in India, though regulators there have capped its in-app WhatsApp Pay service to only 100 million people. People shopping on WhatsApp could also pay using popular services like Alphabet‘s Google Pay, Paytm and Walmart’s PhonePe but only after being redirected outside WhatsApp.

Payments via those rival services – and any others that run on India’s instant money transfer system UPI – will now be possible directly within WhatsApp, Meta said in a blog post. New in-app options for credit and debit cards will also be offered.

The additions bolster Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plan for business messaging to become the “next major pillar” of the company’s sales growth, an agenda that has assumed greater urgency as Meta’s core ads business and metaverse project have come under pressure.

While WhatsApp Pay users will remain capped in India, there is no such limit on the number of users permitted to transact with businesses on WhatsApp using the other methods, a Meta spokesperson said.

With some 300 million people spending about $180 billion via India’s UPI each month, the new transaction options could serve as a powerful lure to attract businesses to pay Meta for access to WhatsApp users.

To date, WhatsApp has limited its end-to-end shopping experiences in India to pilot programs like that with online grocery service JioMart, run by India’s richest person, billionaire Mukesh Ambani, and the metro systems in the cities of Chennai and Bengaluru.

Moving forward, the new payment tools will be available to any company in India that uses WhatsApp’s business platform, which mainly serves large companies, according to the blog post.

Meta is also expanding its Meta Verified subscription program to businesses globally, giving companies a mechanism to validate authenticity and elevate their content in users’ feeds, a separate blog post said.

Monthly subscriptions will be available on Instagram and Facebook in a handful of countries to start and will expand to WhatsApp at a later date, costing $21.99 (roughly Rs. 1,800) per Facebook page or Instagram account or $34.99 (roughly Rs. 2,900) for both, according to the post. 

© Thomson Reuters 2023 

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Paytm Disbursed Over Rs. 5,500 Crore in Loans; While UPI Crosses 10 Billion Transactions in August

Fintech major Paytm on Tuesday said it disbursed $667 million (Rs. 5,517 crore) loans through its platform and deployed 87 lakh devices for offline payments in August. 

The Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led fintech platform said in a regulatory filing that on an average 9.4 crore users transacted through Paytm monthly during July and August this year, which was 20 percent higher than the average number of users recorded during the same period last year.

“Our loan distribution business (in partnership with our lender partners) continues to gain scale with disbursements of Rs. 10,710 crore (y-o-y growth of 137 percent) and 88 lakh loans (y-o-y growth of 47 percent) disbursed in quarter to date for the month of July and August 2023 combined, through the Paytm platform,” the company shared in its operating performance report for August.

The number of merchants paying subscription for payment devices stood at 87 lakh as of August 2023, which is an increase of 42 lakh devices year-on-year, Paytm added.

Merchant Payment Volumes (GMV) for the Antfin-backed firm stood at Rs. 3 lakh crore during July and August, registering an on-year growth of 43 percent.

Meanwhile, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions crossed 10 billion mark in August, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said. 

NPCI is an umbrella organisation for all retail payment systems in India. UPI is used for immediate money transfer through mobile devices round the clock.

“Drumroll please! UPI has just shattered records with an astonishing 10 billion plus transactions. Join us in celebrating this incredible milestone and the power of digital payments. Let’s keep the momentum going and continue to revolutionize the way we make transactions with UPI!,” NPCI said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

According to the NPCI data, the UPI transactions on August 30 stood at 10.24 billion. In value terms, the transaction had totalled Rs. 15,18,456.4 crore.

The number of UPI transactions in July was 9.96 billion (996.4 crore), up from 9.33 billion in June. In value terms, the transactions totalled Rs. 15,33,645.20 crore.

UPI (Unified Payment Interface) is an instant payment system that allows users to instantly transfer money to any bank account. 

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ONDC’s Beta Version Now Live in Five More Indian Cities

The government’s initiative ONDC on Wednesday said its beta version has now become live in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is an initiative of the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

It said that along with Bengaluru and Meerut, which were chosen for going beta live in September 2022 and December 2022, respectively, the network is now accessible to buyers (consumers) and sellers in these additional five cities.

Consumers will be able to purchase from the sellers on the ONDC network through four active buyer applications — Paytm, Mystore, Spice Money, and Magicpin, it said.

Currently, the network has over 40,000 sellers live in over 200 cities, out of which more than 18,000 sellers operate from these five cities.

ONDC had its alpha roll-out in April 2022 in five cities to test live transactions with a closed group of sellers and buyers while gradually expanding its footprint.

The main objective to go beta live is to allow consumers to experience the open network for the first time, collect real-time feedback and also test the network at scale before the pan-India roll-out.

T Koshy, MD and CEO, ONDC, said, “We hope that with this beta announcement, more and more businesses will be inclined to join us, benefiting from an early-mover advantage. Additionally, as we touch more consumer territories, it also gives us the insights and opportunities to improve the network.” 

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Google, Apple Representatives to Meet Parliamentary Panel to Discuss Cyber Security

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has called representatives of several banks such as the Punjab National Bank as well as global and national tech majors, including Google, Apple and Paytm, next week to discuss issues related to cyber security and rising cases of cyber crimes.

The committee, headed by BJP’s Jayant Sinha, has called the representatives of the Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of India, Yes Bank and Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) on July 4 to take oral evidence on “cyber security and rising incidence of cyber/white collar crimes”. On the same day, it has separately called representatives of tech majors One97 Communications (Paytm), Flipkart, Google and Apple on the same issue.

Cyber crimes have become an increasing threat with savvy online operators resorting to various tricks to defraud people of their money. The issue of cyber security and rising incidence of cyber crimes was at the centre of deliberations at a meeting of the panel held earlier this month too as experts from the industry were quizzed by lawmakers about various facets of unlawful activities, including fraud loan applications. The issue of fraud lending apps, which have been hitting headlines with rising complaints of people being swindled or forced to pay exorbitant interest rates, was also discussed at the meeting.

The firms represented at the earlier meeting included Chase India, Razorpay, PhonePe, CRED and QNu Labs as well as Nasscom, a premier trade body and chamber of commerce of the tech industry in India.

The parliamentary committee includes P Chidambaram, Sougata Roy, Sushil Modi, Amar Patnaik, among others.

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ONDC Framing Mechanism to Ensure Rule Compliance by Entities Involved

Government-promoted Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is framing a mechanism to ensure compliance with its rules by entities involved in online retail trading, a senior official said on Thursday.

The ONDC aims to promote an open platform for all aspects of e-commerce retail. It would help small retailers expand their business through e-commerce medium and reduce dominance of giants in the sector.

“If we see that any player is not following our rules, we would take action. We are in the process of finalising things. Law of land should be followed. We are in the process of making that mechanism,” Joint Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Sanjiv told reporters here.

A set of rules on protection of personal information and setting up of grievance resolution mechanisms would be part of the comprehensive ONDC network policy.

According to a consultation paper released by ONDC last year, one of the chapters of the policy on grievance management would frame mechanisms for the participants to manage and resolve grievances filed against them by buyers and sellers.

ONDC, a non-profit company, formulates a set of standards for voluntary adoption by sellers or logistics providers or payments gateway operators.

The ONDC will require an undertaking from each participant at the time of onboarding that it will comply with the policy in its entirety.

Sanjiv also said that ONDC has achieved major milestones in the past few months, including 37 network participants ranging from market leaders to emerging Indian startups, over 26,000 merchants, and over 27 lakh products offered on the network.

“Our dream is to cover all the pin codes of the country by the participants of the ONDC and hopefully we will be achieving that. Earlier we were requesting people to onboard the network and now the companies are approaching us to onboard,” he said.

Most major product categories, including grocery, food and beauty products are live on the network, with expansion to more product categories underway. Mobility services has been enabled in two cities — Kochi (taxi services app Namma Yatri) and Bengaluru (auto services).

ONDC’s geographic coverage has expanded to over 210 cities across India, and its logistics partners can deliver products to about 90 percent of the pin codes across India.

ONDC CEO T Koshy said that more and more sellers, consumer apps, logistics firms, payment gateways are joining the network and “we hope to maintain this momentum”.

Its participants are taking steps to support and handhold sellers to onboard the network and help consumers understand how to use ONDC.

At present, about 600 transactions per day are happening through this network from the earlier 30-40 transactions.

Koshy added that big players who have onboarded the network include HUL, P&G, Paytm, PhonePe and ITC and the network is getting “good traction”.

“We are inviting all big and small players,” Sanjiv said, adding that the number of merchants on the network has increased by 200 to about 50,000 now.

In about 15 cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Bhopal and Kolkata, over 100 merchants have on-boarded the network.

ONDC has on-boarded its handloom weavers from Kancheepuram, to sell their products through ONDC across India with support from the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). Similarly, NABARD is helping farmers producers’ organisations (FPOs) about the usage of this network.

Logistics firms that have onboarded include Dunzo, Shiprocket, Delhivery, and Shipyaari. 

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Paytm Wins RBI Extension for Payment Aggregator Licence Application: Details

Indian financial technology company Paytm Payments Services has received an extension from the country’s banking regulator to apply for a payment aggregator licence and aims to reapply in about 15 days, the company said on Sunday.

Paytm Payments Services, in the meantime, can continue with the online payment aggregation business for its existing partners, without taking on any new merchants, the company said in a notification to stock exchanges on Sunday.

Paytm Payments Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of One 97 Communications.

Payment aggregators, platforms that bring together various online payment options, must be licensed by India’s central bank and banking regulator, Reserve Bank of India.

In November, India’s banking regulator had declined a payment aggregator licence for the One 97 Communications unit that owns the popular Paytm brand.

The company said that the latest move has no material impact on its business and revenue and for the offline part of the business, the company can continue to take on new merchants and offer them payment services.

Last month, Paytm said EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation), an indicator of operational profit, before ESOP cost margin improved to Rs. 31 crore during the third quarter ended December 31, 2022.

The company has calculated an incentive of Rs. 130 crore from UPI transactions in three quarters but CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said that the incentive may technically make the fourth quarter a free cash flow positive quarter but Paytm will report as a one-time item.

“UPI incentive will be one-off and we will explicitly call out as one-off. Rs. 130 crore that we are quoting is for three quarters. The fourth quarter number will be topped on top of it. Because we are calling it one-time item, we are not calling it free cash flow generative. We would rather say free cash flow generative when we are consistently sure of it,” Sharma said during the earnings call in February.

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Alibaba Group Sells Remaining Stake in Paytm Worth Rs. 1,378 Crore

China’s Alibaba Group has sold its remaining stake in Indian digital payments firm Paytm for about Rs. 1,378 crore through a block deal, stock exchange data showed on Friday.

The exit comes days after Paytm posted its first-ever quarterly operating profit as a listed firm, nine months ahead of its own target.

Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce sold 21.4 million shares of Paytm on Friday at Rs. 642.74 apiece, a 9 percent discount to Thursday’s close, NSE stock exchange data showed.

Paytm’s stock tumbled nearly 8 percent on Friday to close at Rs. 650.55, but it is still up nearly 23 percent so far this year.

Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte bought 5.42 million shares of Paytm at Rs. 640 on Friday, the data showed.

It was not immediately clear why Alibaba sold the stake. Paytm and Alibaba did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

In January, Alibaba sold a 3.1 percent stake in the company through a block deal worth $125 million (nearly Rs. 1,030 crore). Before that, the Chinese firm had a 6.26 percent stake in Paytm.

Paytm, which is also backed by China’s Ant Group and Japan’s SoftBank Group, has been under pressure to turn profitable ever since its dismal listing in November 2021.

The stock has declined around 70 percent since listing, and tumbled 60 percent in 2022.

Earlier this week, Macquarie Research double-upgraded the stock to “outperform” from “underperform”, and bumped up the price target by around 80 percent to Rs. 800.

“Perhaps the last bear on the stock on sell side, we change our view and we double upgrade PaytM to outperform,” Macquarie analyst Suresh Ganapathy said.

“We see a very visible change in approach of the management to deliver profits as evidenced by core EBIDTA profitability reported recently. We were earlier expecting losses to continue but at current rate of revenues and operating leverage kicking in, we expect accounting profits to be delivered by FY26.”

© Thomson Reuters 2023

 

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