Having ruled like a king in the Internet wallet segment , Paytm has some serious competition from Snapdeal-owned Freecharge. Snapdeal-owned online recharge and utility payments platform Freecharge has launched a digital wallet. The combination of Freecharge and Snapdeal will create one of the largest mobile commerce ecosystems," Freecharge Cofounder Kunal Shah told The Economic Times.
The company is planning to provide for nearly Rs 1,000 crore of cashbacks through the wallet as festive shopping picks up during October-December.
The new wallet, which will allow consumers to make payments for transactions on both Freecharge and Snapdeal, is expected to strengthen the ecommerce company's position as it battles two of India's largest ecommerce companies, Paytm and Flipkart.
Freecharge has tied up with YES Bank to launch the wallet. During the launch, new Freecharge Chief Operating Officer Govind Rajan took a jab at Paytm, comparing the two apps on features such as app size and transfer charges to the bank. Freecharge has also partnered with the payment bank licensee FINO to build scale and to reach out the underserved population, it said in a statement.
Alibaba-backed Paytm recently received a payment bank licence from the Reserve Bank of India. Paytm, which owns a prepaid wallet licence already, claims to have more than 100 million wallet users in the country.