Paytm becomes case study for Harvard Business School

Study based on Paytm's journey from online recharge platform to India's largest mobile payments one

Online wallet-major Paytm’s journey would be part of a documented case study at the India Research Center, Harvard Business School, the company said.

The study focuses on Paytm’s journey from being an online recharge platform to building India’s largest mobile payments platform, it said.

It would also focus on its offline expansion, the proliferation of wallet-based payments, it’s adoption of various methods to transfer digital cash, including using QR (Quick Response) code. The study, titled Paytm: Building a Payments Network, is in the process of being published and will be available for teaching within and outside Harvard.

“We are on a mission to bring half a billion Indians to the mainstream economy and in turn build a business that India would be proud of. For us, the journey to enable fellow countrymen with digital payments and become a part of financial inclusion has only started right now. It is truly a privilege to have it become a part of the curriculum offered by the prestigious institute,” Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and chief executive officer, Paytm, said. 

Sunil Gupta of Harvard Business School said, “Paytm is revolutionising payments in India and is a shining example of India’s digital future.”

Since demonetisation, Paytm has managed to stay in news. From its massive jacket advertisements featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi, thanking him for ‘taking the boldest decision in the financial history of independent India’, to the recent video of Sharma talking about competition at a private party, the company has been in the eye of the storm.

The company, with almost $1 billion in investments from Chinese technology behemoth Alibaba, which owns close to 40 per cent of the company, is also criticised for being a China-funded company. However, Sharma has claimed Paytm is a 100 per cent Indian company.

“Over the last few quarters, the company has enabled multiple ecosystems to move towards digital payments, as a result of which an increasing number of their users are adopting Paytm. It is now accepted by over three million merchants and has over 185 million registered wallet users,” the company stated. 

It plans to launch its much-awaited payments bank in February and would provide financial inclusion in the form of accounts, loans, insurances and other similar financial products across the country.