India’s number one digital payments service provider Paytm will soon launch a messaging service rivalling Facebook’s Whatsapp. The launch is due for the end of this month. Paytm messaging service is the probable next addition to its fold of services.
Paytm which is in control of the leading investors such as Alibaba and SoftBank is going to integrate messaging services in its current payments app. The app is popular amongst the users who use it to book travel tickets and purchase a whole lot of other items online.
The Paytm messaging service will allow people to send audio, pictures, video and texts as well. The source close to this information has revealed.
At present Paytm has over 225 million users.
Airtel backed messaging app Hike recently launched its payment service through its messaging service. The trend is on the rise seeing the increase in the number of online payments. As more and more people are using the online services companies are getting more into this field.
The surge in E-payments saw an upsurge after the event of demonetization in the country. One of the biggest gainers were the already established firms such as Paytm. After the event firms like Paytm have seen an exponential growth in their market share. According to an estimation, by 2020 there is going to be a 10 times increase in digital payments. The value will increase to a staggering $500 million.
Whatsapp too has filed a request with the Reserve Bank of India for permission to start its own digital payments services in India.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to break the news of Paytm messaging service along side its already existing payments services in India.
However, Paytm has not responded to any of these queries. Further Whatsapp too has not commented on its plans to start digital payments services in India. It will be interesting to see how things pan out for Paytm and what steps are taken by the rivals?