Payments through mobile wallets have caught the imagination of people in the country. This mode of payment is going to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 18.3 per cent over the next four years to breach the $6-trillion mark in 2028, according to data and analytics company GlobalData.
The number of mobile wallet transactions went up to 12.1 billion transactions in February 2024 from 7.5 billion transactions in the same month last year reflects the momentum. The total value of the transactions increased to $221.5 billion from $150 billion during the period.
Launched in April 2016, UPI had a user base of 300 million as of October 2023, with the figure growing continuously due to increasing merchant acceptance points.
The total value of mobile wallet payments in the country grew at a CAGR of 72 per cent from 2019 to 2023, reaching $2.5 trillion in 2023, the report said.
“India is one of the most developed mobile wallet markets in the world. Mobile wallets are now widely used for day-to-day transactions at supermarkets, grocery stores, street vendors, and for online transactions,” Shivani Gupta, Senior Banking and Payments Analyst at GlobalData, said.
“The rise in mobile wallet adoption is largely driven by UPI (unified payments interface), which facilitates payments in real-time simply by scanning QR codes,” she said.
“The surge in UPI payments is attributed to the convenience of electronic payments, high smartphone penetration, rising banked population, and the proliferation of UPI-enabled mobile payment solutions in the country,” she said.
Several mobile wallets, such as Paytm, PhonePe, Amazon Pay, and Google Pay, have incorporated UPI functionality, allowing users to conduct QR code transactions directly from their linked bank accounts.
“The solution offers fast, secure, convenient, and low-cost fund transfers and payments and has the potential to further disrupt the overall payment space in India,” she said.
BY K V KURMANATH
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/mobile-wallet-payments-in-india-to-breach-6-trillion-mark-in-2028-globaldata/article68023237.ece