Paytm has been working on the messaging service for three months now, according to the source, who did not reveal his identity. Paytm’s messaging service will let users send audio, video, pictures and texts. Paytm, India’s leading digital payments firm is backed by Japanese MNC SoftBank and Chinese e-com giant Alibaba. The e-wallet company recently received a huge $1.4 billion funding amount from SoftBank. Paytm provides a wide range of services to its users from movies to flight tickets. And now it wants to attract users with a messaging service embedded in its payments app. The step will definitely counter the popular messenger, WhatsApp in India. Paytm has more than 225 million users in comparison to WhatsApp which has around 200 million monthly active users (as of February) in India. The Facebook owned messaging app which claims of having 1 billion active users worldwide sees India as its biggest single market. The messaging app has now been looking at moving into digital payment services here. Earlier last month, homegrown messenger app Hike also rolled out UPI and wallet payments service in its app in collaboration with Yes bank. Also, there are some other apps like Truecaller that moved into UPI integration with the rise of digital transactions in the country. The digital payments in India will uproar nearly 10 times by 2020 to $500 billion from current, according to a report by Boston Consulting Group in 2016. Paytm played an active role in digital payments in India post demonetization move by the Government. To recall, it has also launched Payments Bank and Paytm Mall, an online shopping app earlier this year. Now, this messaging service integration will definitely increase its market share.
