Fintech firm BharatPe has entered the consumer payments business by rebranding its PostPe app as BharatPe. In doing so, it has also pitted itself against established players like PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm for a piece of the P2P ecosystem.
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The new BharatPe app allows users to generate their UPI ID within the application itself. This will make it pretty easy to send money to individuals to pay to merchants and also for utility bill payments through BharatPe. Integration of TPAP-Third Party Application Provider services into the platform was done by BharatPe with Unity Bank as a partner.
The key highlight of the new BharatPe app is UPI Lite for customers to preload their online wallet and do transactions up to Rs 500 across P2P and P2M transactions without requiring a UPI PIN, thus making it more convenient for the user.
Within two years, BharatPe emerged as one of the largest offline UPI acquirers with over 1.3 crore registered merchants and close to 370 million UPI transactions every month.
Currently, PhonePe reigns supreme in the UPI ecosystem with over 48% market share in overall transactions, including both P2P and P2M transactions. Google Pay and Paytm follow next with around 37% and 8% market share respectively.
Besides leading platforms, there have been several nascent UPI apps that have shown considerable volumes in the last few months. CRED has been the fourth largest UPI player, followed by Axis Bank Apps, Amazon Pay, Navi, ICICI Bank Apps, Fampay by Trio and Kotak Mahindra Bank Apps. WhatsApp Pay ranked 11th in July, beating BHIM, Groww, Slice, MobiKwik and Flipkart UPI among others.
The transaction for Sachin Bansal-led Navi, which is also one of the new entrants, went up from 35 million in June to 68 million in July on a high growth trajectory in the fiercely competitive UPI turf.
As BharatPe readies itself to give the leading players in the consumer payment segment a tough challenge, industry watchers would keenly watch the strategies that the company will adopt to bolster its position in the market. Meanwhile, the move of the National Payments Corporation of India to delay the implementation of a 30% market share cap on third-party apps brings in an element of uncertainty in the evolving dynamics of the UPI ecosystem.
In summary, BharatPe rebrands PostPe to enter consumer payments arena, competing with PhonePe and Paytm. Features UPI Lite for convenient transactions. NPCI’s market share cap deferred.
