UPI In May: PhonePe, Google Pay See Marginal Decline In Market Share

PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm continued to lead the UPI charts in May, collectively processing more than 2,000 Cr transactions. However, the top three players saw marginal decline in the market share during the month.

While PhonePe continued to lead with 1,073.5 Cr transactions worth ₹14.67 Lakh Cr during the month under review, its market share declined to 46.5% in May from 47.1% in April.

Google Pay’s monthly transaction volume increased 3.1% to 759.8 Cr from 735.9 Cr in April. Its market share went down to 32.9% in May from 33.5% in the previous month.

Similarly, Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led Paytm processed 183.6 Cr transactions worth ₹1.99 Lakh Cr in May as against 177.8 Cr transactions worth ₹1.90 lakh Cr in April. But its market share slipped to 7.9% in May from 8.1% in the previous month.

While the top players saw a decline in market share, smaller UPI players like WhatsApp, MobiKwik, Kiwi, among others, saw their cumulative market share jump to 4.3% this month from 2.4% in April.

This comes at a time when the NPCI has been concerned about the concentration of market share with top UPI players. In April, the payments body held a meeting with smaller UPI players to discuss proposals aimed at boosting competition, including preferential incentives, early access to new features, and a review of Autopay-related restrictions.

The NPCI had proposed a 30% market share cap for UPI players in 2020. However, the implementation timeline has been extended multiple times, with the latest extension being till December 2026.

The payments body is also working on new initiatives to increase UPI penetration. For instance, it is currently building a common interoperable infrastructure for UPI soundboxes to enable a single device to process UPI payments across different payment apps.

The infrastructure would allow merchants to receive payment confirmations through a single soundbox, regardless of the QR code used by customers for the transaction.

Meanwhile, NPCI’s arm NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) recently signed an agreement with Malaysian state-backed Payments Network (PayNet) to enable cross-border QR payments between the two nations. As a part of phase 1 roll out, Indian tourists in Malaysia will be able to make UPI payments at more than 29 Lakh DuitNow QR touchpoints.

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