News Roundup: While UPI Continues To Grow, WhatsApp Pay Off To A Slow Start & More

This week, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)-owned UPI announced that it saw nearly 6.7% growth from 2.07 Bn transactions in October to 2.21 Bn in November 2020. Overall, it has processed transactions worth INR 3,90,999 Cr in November compared to INR 3,86,106 Cr in the previous month. 

Facebook-owned WhatsApp which received approval last month is off to a slow start. WhatsApp Pay had less than 1% of the total market share in terms of the total volume of UPI transactions. Currently, UPI transactions are still dominated by Flipkart-owned PhonePe and Google Pay, both of which have 42% and 41% market share respectively, while the remaining share is split between Paytm and Mobikwik. 

After PhonePe partially sold its stake to its parent company Walmart, Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal is all set to join PhonePe’s board of directors. Bansal will be joining PhonePe co-founders Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari and Rohit Bhagat on the board. 

Paytm’s digital financial service platform, Paytm Money recently announced that it will facilitate investment service in initial public offerings (IPOs) in India. With this, Paytm Money is looking to take over 8-10% of applications market share in the first year of launch. 

Also, the retail investors can now fill out their applications digitally and can apply for all IPOs through UPI ID linked to their bank accounts. Leveraging UPI’s infrastructure, the company claims to have reduced the application process to 3-4 days. 

In a bid to improve the security of digital payment channels and also offer convenience for users, the Reserve Bank of India’s governor Shaktikanta Das said that the central bank will be introducing digital payment security control directions for regulated entities. 

This comes after RBI temporarily banned the largest private sector lender HDFC Bank from selling new credit cards for launching new digital banking initiatives, followed by the digital banking app of the country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI), YONO also faced similar hiccups on Thursday.

Other News 

• On a Chinese app banning spree, the Indian government is in the process of preparing a fresh list of mobile apps that would be banned ‘very shortly.’ Accordingly, the government is looking at apps that have transaction in app stores and are being downloaded the most. Once this is done, the government will be monitoring the apps and will be taking strict action. 
• The Indian government is planning to file a plea to bring all pending court cases (around 23 cases) in the country regarding the content on OTT platforms, to the Supreme Court. This comes as an extension of the government trying to bring OTT platforms under the purview of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B), and further stoked fears of censorship of online content. 
• American fast-food chain, The Wendy’s Company has struck a deal with Rebel Foods to launch 250 cloud kitchens in India as a part of its expansion plans. The cloud kitchens will be operated and developed by Sierra Nevada Restaurants, which holds the India master franchisee for Wendy’s. 

Meanwhile, in Inc42’s Movers and Shakers this week, Ola appointed Jose Pinheiro as its head of global manufacturing and operations for its electric business (Ola Electric). Prior to this, Pinheiro was the vice-president for General Motors Latin America, based out of Sao Paulo and has over four decades of leadership experience.