Merchants of UPI

PhonePe’s offline overtures

PhonePe’s path to realising its grand vision of being the number one payments app hinges on users using it to pay merchants. But will they?

Arundhati Ramanathan, 16 Jun 2017

PhonePe needs to go offline if it wants ubiquity. But it is a costly move

UPI is great for peer to peer transactions but cards still rule when it comes to merchant payments

Wallets and UPI's path crisscross across use cases and both have very distinct pros and cons

For Flipkart, PhonePe is its fourth fintech bet. One that it can't afford to lose

In the race to make Unified Payments Interface (UPI) a popular way to pay, PhonePe was the first to shoot right off the block when the whistle sounded. Within a week after the payment system was launched in August 2016, PhonePe was out with its app.

In these nine months, the young payments app has already come a full circle. An acquisition by Flipkart even before its product was out, a policy like demonetisation that tried to upend things for good, an ambush from unexpected competitors, and banks preying on the new at the slightest opportunity.

AUTHOR

Arundhati Ramanathan

Arundhati is Bengaluru-based. She is interested in how people use money in the digital age and how new economies will take shape based on that interaction. She has spent over 10 years reporting and writing on various subjects. Previous stints were at Mint, Outlook Business and Reuters.

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PhonePe’s offline overtures