Pay-with-pin a better way of making digital payment at brick-and-mortar stores: Bipin Preet Singh

Interview with Chief executive officer and co-founder, MobiKwik

MobiKwik, one of the leading online payment system and mobile wallets, is coming up with a new pay-with-pin technology to avoid the hassles of poor internet connectivity. In an e-mail interview with Gaurab Dasgupta, MobiKwik's chief executive officer and co-founder Bipin Preet Singh talks about the intricacies of the new technology. Edited excerpts:

Since the pay-with-pin technology seems to solve the pain points of the one-time-password (OTP) technology, does that mean MobiKwik is doing away with it completely?

Pay-with-pin will function along with OTP and Bill Push technology. The users will have the option to pay with all the available methods. With this, rather than restricting the users to just a few choices, we are offering them varied options to conveniently make payments using MobiKwik wallet.

Is it a first-of-a-kind technology in the Indian market? Are any other start-ups also using it?

We believe this is a first-of-its-kind payment technology in India.

What is the new technology all about? How does it work? Has it been developed indigenously by MobiKwik or outsourced?

The user generates a PIN on the MobiKwik app before making the purchase. Later, even if there is no internet connectivity, it would not matter since the PIN is pre-generated. It is valid for 15 minutes. The user has to share only the PIN with the retailer, who enters it into his POS machine and payment from the user's wallet is instantly processed. The technology has been developed in-house at MobiKwik.

What is the timeline for this new technology? Will it be rolled out at one go across the entire country or in phases?

Pay-with-pin will go live on the Android app in a week's time, after which the users can start making payments across any of the 10,000 offline stores where MobiKwik payments are accepted.

How will this tech affect any revenue at MobiKwik?

Users will find pay-with-pin a better way of making digital payments at brick-and-mortar stores. Hence, more MobiKwik users will make the transition from cash and card payments to making purchases with the wallet in offline stores. This will add to our revenues.