SBI Set To Launch Its Mobile Wallet App, SBI Buddy

State Bank of India is all set to launch its mobile wallet App SBI Buddy, tomorrow, to compete directly with ICICI Bank’s Pocket, HDFC Bank’s PayZapp and mcommerce companies, Paytm and Mobikwik.

In most scenario, a customer has to download the sellers’ app like Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and use their debit or credit cards while making payments or pay through mobile wallets such as MobiKwik, Citrus or Paytm.

With SBI’s Buddy App, customers will be able to access sellers’ App directly without downloading the latter separately.  For this SBI has already tied up with several merchants to let users access the merchant’s’ store directly through its App. Moreover, the new app will be available for both, SBI and non-SBI customers.

SBI Buddy App will have products listed from various merchant sites such as travel, hotel, entertainment and fashion space.

Crunching Numbers & Industry Analysis:

• According to industry estimates, the overall mobile wallet users in India are expected to be about 10 Cr.
• SBI currently has a customer base is of about 28.6 Cr. of which 2.3 Cr. is for net banking while 1.6 Cr. for mobile banking services.

Apart from ICICI, HDFC and SBI, a few other banks including Yes Bank and Axis Bank are also planning to launch their mobile wallets soon. Mwallet has gained swift acceptance among the youth and affluent who prefer online shopping with their smartphones.

With customer preference shifting away from traditional banking to internet banking, few banks have already initiated such development. For instance:

• Citibank India and MasterCard launched – Citi MasterPass
• ICICI Bank introduced digital payments product named Pockets
• HDFC Bank partnered with mobile payments company Chillr
• Kotak Mahindra Bank launched a savings account product – Jifi Saver & KayPay – a bank agnostic payment product for Facebook users to send money to each other.

In June last year, total transactions through mobile wallets rose to INR 1,268 Cr., while mobile banking transactions in the same period rose to INR 22,117 Cr. in the country.

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