Paytm is having a gala time as transactions cross 25 mn, thanks to demonetisation

Paytm’s business has skyrocketed and clocked about 25 million transactions since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announced demonetisation and declared Rs 500, Rs 1000 notes as illegal tender. The offline transactions of the company are expected to be of around Rs 150 crore in value.

The growth comes less than a week after it launched a new speedtracker function, which can track down the merchants who accept Paytm.

With cash crunch gripping customers and traders alike, Paytm's ‘Nearby’ feature aims to carry a directory of over 8 lakh offline merchants and partners on Paytm's platform with 2 lakh merchants included in the first phase.

"The offline share of our business has surpassed online in the past five days and forms around 68-70% of the business now from the 50% earlier," Deepak Abbot, senior vice-president, Paytm, told ET.

The company has also introduced a feature to change the language to 10 regional languages so as to make it more user-friendly. Through the multi-lingual visibility alone, the company is expecting to grow its business 80%.

The company’s rival MobiKwik, which has a similar offline feature, has seen an additional 200% in downloads in the past few days, while adding 2,00,000 users every day.

For Paytm, local travel and transport has been the bread winner as far as its offline revenue pie goes.

"Transport has done very well in the past five days with around 8,50,000 transactions per day as against the 3,00,000 per day before the drive. At the rate at which the business is happening, we might even see 4-5x growth now," Abbot told ET.
(image: IndiaTimes)