Google is seeking Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approval to integrate Unified Payment Interface (UPI) within Android Pay. This will mark a significant step for Google to make way into India’s growing digital payments space. Facebook and Whatsapp are also looking to integrate into UPI services.
India is a big market for Google as 90% of mobile phones sold in India are Android based. This simply transforms into hundreds of millions of easy customers for this tech giant. At present, India has over 330 million mobile users. Moreover, there are 100 million new mobile users added every year.
Facebook and WhatsApp are also looking to make an entry into this growing trend. Moreover, it is also in conversation with the National Payments Corporations of India (NPCI). NPCI is the parent organisation which controls the UPI in India.
Google has already completed its testing with regards to UPI. Once, RBI gives its nod to Google, the customers will be able to use Android payment services through UPI. The experts believe that RBI will take a bit longer to consider the requests of Google and other tech giants in India. As these are companies with considerable size, approving them for UPI can have a major impact on the economy. These three tech companies are the major players in India looking for UPI integration.
A Google India spokesperson said that they are hopeful for a positive outcome. Moreover, they believe that once they can integrate UPI then they would have a market of 1 billion plus customers. It is going to be the next big thing for these tech companies.
Flipkart already accepts payments through UPI and Amazon will soon start payments through UPI as well. In the cab hailing services providers Uber is reportedly looking into this while Ola has already started to use UPI. Bharti Airtel backed Hike messenger is also looking into integrating UPI for its purposes. Whereas Paytm will start its UPI-based payments by August this year.