PhonePe, Google Pay Lead UPI Race In May

Continuing the duopoly, PhonePe and Google Pay accounted for nearly 85% of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) market share in May.

Walmart-backed PhonePe recorded 868.20 Cr transactions worth INR 12.56 Lakh Cr last month. The value of these transactions jumped 4.2% from INR 12.05 Lakh Cr in April.

On the other hand, Google Pay’s UPI transaction volume increased 4% month-on-month (MoM) to  674.04 Cr in the month under review, from 648 Cr in April.

As per the data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) earlier this month, UPI transaction count grew 4.4% to 18.68 Bn in May from 17.89 Bn in April, touching a fresh all-time high.

The value of these transactions also surged 5% MoM to INR 25.14 Lakh Cr from INR 23.95 Lakh Cr in April.

Out of these 18.68 Bn transactions, 18.38 Bn were recorded by the UPI app players.

Talking about the third largest player in the UPI app market, Paytm recorded 125.75 Cr UPI transactions worth INR 1.38 Lakh Cr in the month under review. The fintech giant has consistently been holding onto the third position with nearly 7% market share every month.

It is followed by IPO-bound Navi which recorded 38.6 Cr transactions, accounting for a value of INR 21,350.35 Cr last month. 

Flipkart’s super.money and Kunal Shah-led CRED followed the UPI race with the former recording 20.34 Cr transaction count and the later logging 14.19 Cr transactions in the month under review.

In April, FamApp By Trio (erstwhile FamPay) surpassed Amazon Pay to become the eighth biggest UPI player. The teenager-centric fintech platform continues to retain its position with 11.03 Cr transactions in May, up from nearly 10 Cr transactions recorded in the previous month. 

Whereas, Amazon Pay logged 9.68 Cr transactions last month.

UPI On The MDR Crossroad

The prevailing debate around introducing a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI payments is a burning topic, fuelled by concerns about financial sustainability of the UPI ecosystem while also balancing the goal of promoting digital payments.

MDR is the fee charged to merchants by banks or payment service providers for processing digital transactions through UPI. Currently, the Payment Council of India (PCI) is pushing the government to bring back the MDR and charge large merchants on UPI transactions above INR 2,000. 

A recent report suggested that the government is considering levying an MDR on UPI transactions above INR 3,000. However, the finance ministry termed the report speculative, baseless and misleading. 

Last month, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said that the introduction of MDR on UPI payments will result in a rise in revenue for the fintech major but also has the potential to intensify the competition.