Paytm makes the most of demonetisation, is on its way to process Rs 24,000cr in transactions

Digital mobile payments company Paytm on Monday announced that it had touched a record five million transactions a day while being on the way to process over Rs 24,000 crores.

An earlier statement by the company revealed that within hours of Prime Minister making the announcement, the company witnessed a sharp 200 percent hike in the number of app downloads and a 250 percent surge in the number of overall transactions and transaction value.

According to the company, the number of saved cards also grew by 30 percent, while noting a 1,000-percent growth in money added to the wallet.

After almost a week since the announcement, the number of app downloads seems to have gone up for the company by another 100 percent, with transactions per user seeing a sharp rise from three transactions to almost over 18 transactions a week.

Kiran Vasireddy, Senior Vice President – Paytm said,

Owing to the overwhelming response from consumers and merchants alike, we have set bolder targets in merchant acquisition, and are aiming to target five million merchants by the end of the financial year.

Currently, close to 8,50,000 offline merchants across India accept Paytm including merchant segments involving taxis, autos, petrol pumps, grocery shops, restaurants, coffee shops, multiplexes, parking, pharmacies, hospitals, kirana shops, amongst others.

Further, according to Nitin Misra, Senior Vice President, Paytm, all merchants, be it small or large, can now accept payments at zero transaction fee or TDR.

According to him, this is a historic opportunity for India to skip the plastic generation and leapfrog to mobile payments.

Stressing on the same in an earlier interaction with YourStory, Madhur Deora, Chief Financial Officer, Paytm said,

We are seeing an incredible increase in merchant sign-ups, both online and offline. Online merchants who were relying on cash-on-delivery will need Paytm’s easy-to-use and ubiquitous solution. For offline merchants and delivery persons, we are the logical substitute for cash, with our zero merchant discount rate solution and easy-to-use QR codes.

The company was also seen aggressing towards the offline payments category, including toll booths and other categories, through its extensive partnerships with highway authorities. Some of the company’s major offline partners include Future Group, More, Big Bazaar, Spencers, eZone, Croma, Fortis Health World, Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum, Mother Dairy, WHSmith, Haldiram’s, Vaango, KFC, Pizza Hut, Barista, Costa Coffee, amongst others.

Other wallets are also witnessing a similar hike in usage with Paytm’s closest competitor Freecharge witnessing a 12x growth overnight in the balances stored by customers for its wallet.