CRED, WhatsApp Pay Top Gainers In UPI Payments In October 2022

The total value of transactions on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) crossed the INR 12 Lakh Cr mark in October 2022, with the usual suspects – PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm – continuing their dominance. 

The trio accounted for more than 95% of the total UPI transactions, while CRED and WhatsApp emerged as the biggest gainers during the month. 

According to the data provided by the National Payments Council of India (NPCI) for the month of October 2022, the total number of UPI transactions on the CRED app grew 42% month-on-month (MoM).

It saw 1.50 Cr transactions worth INR 19,237.92 Cr in September 2022 which grew to 2.13 Cr (a 42% rise) in October. The value of total transactions grew merely 5.3% MoM to INR 20,259.70 Cr.

The sharp increase in the number of UPI transactions on CRED can be attributed to its new Scan & Pay feature. The feature currently provides cashback to its members when they scan and pay via UPI. 

It is noteworthy that the average size of the transaction on CRED was at INR 9,511.6 in October. This is significantly lower than the previous month’s average of INR 12,825.28, signalling that the incentive drove users to transact using the payments feature of the credit card manager.

WhatsApp Pay, on the other hand, recorded 83.8 Lakh transactions worth INR 708.56 Cr, a growth of 12% MoM in terms of the transaction value as well as count. The average ticket size on WhatsApp Pay was INR 845.53 (a steady number, similar to INR 850 in September 2022).

Other UPI Apps Mark 8% Average MoM Growth

In the past few months, the top two UPI apps (PhonePe and Google Pay) have been growing at an average of 2-3% MoM. However, the market leaders grew at a higher pace in October. 

PhonePe grew nearly 8% MoM, recording 345.29 Cr transactions worth INR 5.94 Lakh Cr, while Google grew more than 8.5% MoM, recording 249.64 Cr transactions worth INR 4.21 Lakh Cr.

Paytm (which grew more than 12% last month) grew at a slower rate of 7% in terms of number of transactions, which stood at 111 Cr, while value of transactions rose 10.5% to INR 13.36 Lakh Cr.

PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm together amassed more than 95% of the UPI market in October 2022 as well.

Last month’s top gainer Tata Neu also maintained its growth. While it recorded just around 10,000 transactions in July and August worth nearly INR 15 Cr-INR 17 Cr, it saw an increase in transactions amid the festive season. The Tata Neu super app recorded 1.3 Lakh UPI transactions worth INR 17.23 Cr in September and 1.4 Lakh UPI transactions worth INR 18.3 Cr in October.

Amazon Pay remained the top loser among all the UPI apps with the total number of transactions falling by 1.5% to 5.64 Cr worth INR 6,060.50 Cr in October 2022.

In October 2022, too, the high transacting categories included buying groceries, mobile recharges, dining out, digital games and more. The medium transacting categories included the likes of debt collection, paying gas, water and electricity bills and more. Barber shops, DTH services and everything else was a part of the other transacting categories.