It's loading: Paytm looks to become a super app by the end of year

700 developers on its mini app store; will touch 2,000-3,000 by year end

With almost 700 developers on its mini app store already, fintech major Paytm is looking to become a super app by the end of year when it hopes to have as many as 2,000 to 3,000 developers on board, said source close to the development. 

A super app is a mobile app with a large number of use cases of payments, commerce, daily life and financial services, explains RedSeer.

Paytm’s super app strategy is similar to its Chinese investor Alibaba’s Alipay foray into mini apps in order to get more users on the platform. In China, payments players like WeChat and Alipay have been able to transit into a super app environment, with hundreds of use cases of mini apps.

Paytm’s largest use case is, of course, its payments ecosystem, which has 333 million users and 21.2 million merchants. According to Paytm's draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), the company is the largest payments platform in India, with a gross merchandise value of Rs 403,300 billion in FY21. As of March 31, Paytm’s mini app store had 5.7 million monthly active users.

Explaining the company’s mini app store strategy, Shreyas Srinivasan, head, Paytm mini app store, said, “Our strategy is to make sure that our users have more use cases to open Paytm every day. We want to provide more integrated services so that users do not need to set up accounts at multiple places.” Srinivasan did not confirm on the number of developers that it intends to add by the end of the year.

Paytm says in its DHRP that consumers can opt for services like online recharges, bill payments, money transfers and pay in-store merchants. Users can also buy entertainment and travel tickets, consume content, play online games and access hundreds of mini apps across food delivery, ride hailing and e-commerce services. A broad range of financial services, such as consumer wallets, postpaid (buy-now-pay-later), auto and health insurance, personal loans, brokerage accounts and equity trading accounts, are also on offer.

Srinivasan added that Paytm was trying to be a platform where developers and businesses can create a seamless experience for users — from search to payment. To do this, Paytm has allowed developers to create apps in HTML and Javascript, which means they are quick and cheap to build.  

“We give them traffic and the ability to receive payments very easily. We open Paytm’s payments instruments for developers on both the consumer-facing Paytm app as well as the merchant-facing platform,” he said.

Moreover, the listing on Paytm is free, and if payments happen via UPI or a mobile wallet, there are no transaction charges. Charges are applicable only for credit card payments (2 per cent) or for advertisements. Paytm is also making payments across merchant QR codes easy, “For many apps in the online-to-offline segment, the journey starts from their store by using a QR code. So we are integrating their QR codes into Paytm. Right now it’s in beta,” said Srinivasan.

Some of the popular names that are currently on the Paytm mini app store include Domino’s, Ola, Decathlon, Rapido, among others. Vaccine Finder has been one of Paytm’s most successful apps and has been accessed by almost 10 million users in the last three months. “Last month we added the feature of booking vaccines using this app, which has been accredited by CoWin. More than 1.4 million users have booked vaccine slots using this app,” Srinivasan said.

Experts say that the biggest advantage of a mini app store is that it declutters your phone as there is no need to download different apps for different services. 

“With mobile phones becoming the sole device that is used frequently, this can get users hooked. Additionally, a fintech player also gives ease of payment across transactions, reducing the pain of maintaining multiple accounts and passwords,” said a senior analyst on the condition of anonymity.