Paytm aims at $500mn in monthly sales by December, expects 50 pc increase in worth of goods and services

With more customers using the digital wallet to make transactions, payments and commerce company Paytm predicts a 50 percent increase in the worth of goods and services sold monthly on its platform, reports The Economic Times.

The company has raised more than $728 million in funding from key investors including ANT Finanacial, SAIF Partners and Intel Capital, according to YourStory Research.

Further, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm CEO and Founder, said that the platform expects to clock monthly sales of $500 million (Rs 3,300 crore) by this December, as reported by the publication. A bulk of Paytm’s revenues are expected to come from ticketing, recharges and offline payments.

While cash recharges now contribute to 22 percent of Paytm’s sales, payments of utility bills contribute to 10 percent of the platform’s entire sales.

According to The Economic Times, the Noida-based company records monthly sales of $300 million, while incurring an operating loss of one percent, including costs of online marketing, maintaining a payment gateway and providing cashbacks to customers.

Just last month, Paytm partnered with financial institutions to provide collateral free working loans to small merchants and kirana store owners. While tying up with financial institutions like Capital Float, the transaction history of these merchants (on Paytm) would be passed on to third-party financial institutions for credit profiling and scoring.

Also, in a move to convert cash users to digital, Paytm is also tying up with auto drivers to accept the fare through Paytm, amongst other moves.

The publication also reported that the company was planning to hive off its mobile marketplace into a separate entity with China’s Alibaba considering investment in the new entity.

Alibaba along with its affiliates owns 40 percent stake in Paytm.

The market

While the war to claim the digital payment pie in the country intensifies, Paytm clashes with Snapdeal’s FreeCharge and MobiKwik for its mobile wallet.

According to a Nielsen study in April this year, FreeCharge’s market share reached 30 percent from a mere 17 percent last October. The same study reported Paytm to have a market share of 40 percent, an increase from 35 percent since last October.

Paytm’s competitors have also been rolling out their strategies to get more consumers to accept digital payments. Earlier this year, FreeCharge introduced its ubiquitous FreeCharge Go card in association with Mastercard, which allows consumers to pay across almost every online merchants.

Similarly, Snapdeal-owned FreeCharge also introduced the recent Chat-n-Pay service, which allows consumers to pay to a merchant’s mobile number, with the merchant claiming his payment by registering on the FreeCharge platform.

According to a recent report released by internet major Google and consulting firm The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), by 2020, the size of the digital payments industry in India will be $500 billion, and will contribute 15 percent of India’s GDP.

The report also states that 60 percent of the digital payments value will be contributed by offline or physical points of sale, including unorganised retail, eateries, transport, etc., by 2020. This lends some perspective to the initiatives launched by the payment companies in India.