PhonePe beats Google Pay, tops UPI app space in December: NPCI data

Google Pay had seen 960-mn transactions amounting to Rs 1.6 trn in November

Walmart-backed PhonePe has emerged the top unified payments interface (UPI) application (app) in December, with 902.03 million transactions accounting for Rs 1.82 trillion, followed by Google Pay with 854.49 million transactions worth Rs 1.76 trillion, thus, controlling the lion’s share of the UPI market, according to the data by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

Google Pay has seen 11 per cent fall in transaction volume in December, compared to November. In November, Google Pay had seen 960.02 million transactions accounting for Rs 1.61 trillion, followed by PhonePe, with 868.4 million transactions worth Rs 1.75 trillion. 

According to the October data, Google Pay accounted for 857.81 million transactions, while PhonePe came in second, with 839.88 million transactions.

These top two apps account for more than 78 per cent of the UPI market in terms of volume of transaction, and 86 per cent of the market by value of transactions in December. 

In November, these two apps had more than 82 per cent of the market by volume and more than 86 per cent by value. Paytm Payments Bank app is behind PhonePe and Google Pay, with 256.36 million transactions by volume in December worth Rs 31,291.83 crore. 

New entrant to the market WhatsApp processed 810,000 transactions worth Rs 29.72 crore in December. In November, it had processed 310,000 transactions worth Rs 13.87 crore.

Other third-party app providers, such as Amazon Pay, processed 40.53 million transactions worth Rs 3,508.93 crore, while NPCI’s BHIM app processed 24.8 million transactions worth Rs 7,748.29 crore. 

UPI handled 2.23 billion transactions worth Rs 4.16 trillion in December — a record both in terms of volume and value. It breached the 2-billion mark for the third straight month. 

In November, UPI had recorded 2.21 billion transactions worth Rs 3.9 trillion, and had clocked Rs 3.86 trillion of payments in October, which is when it had surpassed 2 billion transactions for the first time.

The NPCI had recently imposed 30-per cent cap on third-party apps on total volume transactions processed via UPI, effective January 1, 2021. This had prompted many to criticise the regulator for stifling competition in the UPI space. 

However, the existing third-party app providers processing over 30 per cent transactions will have a period of two years from January 2021, to comply with the same in a phased manner. 

Both Google Pay and PhonePe will have to comply with the NPCI’s diktat and bring down the share in UPI transactions to below 30 per cent in the next two years.