From Paytm to Freecharge, feature phones get a digi-wallet push

In an effort to bring every mobile phone user into the fold of the digital economy, mobile wallet companies are churning out a host of digital wallets that work on feature phones.

From state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to mobile wallets such as FreeCharge, Oxigen and Paytm, every player is either coming out or already has introduced mobile wallets for feature phones. Feature phones incorporate the ability to access the Internet and store and play music but lack the advanced functionality of smartphones.

In India, around 140 million feature phones are sold in a year and these constitute nearly half of the total mobile phone user base. According to industry experts, to make digitisation a success it is extremely important to reach out to this market. Most of the users of feature phones are in small towns and rural areas but a chunk is also found in cities.

Recently, the State Bank of India (SBI) launched MobiCash for feature as well as smartphones as a pilot in Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Bihar. 

MobiCash allows users to deposit cash through BSNL retail outlets and withdraw funds from their accounts. SBI already has an application named SBI Buddy for smartphone users. The government plans to take MobiCash to rural areas and also plans to popularise it via common service centres.

“MobiCash has the potential to become the go-to wallet for feature phone users in rural areas, which can be used by farmers in mandis, small corporative stores in tier-III towns and even mom and pop stores in cities. We will promote the wallet and by next year March hopefully add around 15 million active users,” said a senior BSNL official.

Companies such as FreeCharge, Oxigen, Paytm, all have their versions of wallets for feature phones. “Mobikwik is also working on a feature phone version of the wallet which can make and receive payments via SMS,” said a spokesperson for the company.

Companies such as Oxigen have a large number of users who transact via feature phones. “We started India’s first digital wallet over SMS long before smartphones came to India in 2008. Today, we have eight million feature phone users making more than 1.5 million transactions per month, amounting to over Rs 500 crore per month. We are focusing on this very heavily, given our retail footprint (outlets), and are using merchants to convert customers to Oxigen wallet SMS / USSD users. Out of the 300 million smartphones out there, only 100 million really use data, the rest also act almost like feature phones. This segment is the real beneficiary of a digital wallet,” said Ankur Saxena, CEO, Oxigen Wallet.

Paytm recently announced a toll-free number to enable consumers and merchants without an Internet connection to pay and receive money instantly and also recharge their mobile phones. The feature enables non-smartphone users to go cashless even without a smartphone.