BHIM App To Join ONDC To Take On Rivals Google Pay, PhonePe

Digital payments app Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) will soon be reportedly available on the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) in a bid to increase its shares in the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) transactions.

The app will foray into the ecommerce space on ONDC via a separate division, ET reported citing sources. With this, the users of the payments app would be able to shop for food and beverages, groceries, fashion, and apparel on the platform. 

“The hope is that with BHIM’s users able to shop for food and beverages, groceries, fashion and apparel, on ONDC, the adoption of BHIM app will increase compared to its competitors Google Pay, and PhonePe,” the report quoted an official as saying. 

Inc42 has reached out to ONDC for a comment on the development. The story will be updated on receiving a response. 

Launched in 2016 by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), BHIM is far behind in terms of UPI transactions compared to rivals like Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm. 

While PhonePe processed 650.2 Cr UPI transactions in March 2024, Google Pay and Paytm facilitated 506.1 Cr and 123 Cr transactions, respectively. Meanwhile, BHIM processed a mere 3 Cr transactions, as per the NPCI data.

The dominance of a few players in the UPI space has raised some concerns. In February, a report by a parliamentary panel flagged the large market share of Google Pay and PhonePe, and called for promoting indigenous players in the fintech sector.

In March, the NPCI also held a meeting with digital payment startups and companies to gather inputs on enabling growth of smaller third-party application providers (TPAP). 

Meanwhile, the ONDC juggernaut continues to roll on. The network continues to onboard big companies and startups and expand its offerings. It is now looking to onboard news media platforms on the network, with Dainik Jagran said to be in advanced stages of integration with ONDC. 

Meanwhile, ecommerce giants Flipkart and Amazon are said to be looking to set up ONDC storefronts on their home pages.

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