WhatsApp Payments grows over 2X in December UPI volume, value; PhonePe pips Google Pay to lead tally

WhatsApp Payments, which went live in December 2020 for up to 20 million users, has grown by over 2X in UPI transactions volume and value as well from November, according to the latest data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). WhatsApp Payments UPI volume was up from 0.31 million transactions (3.1 lakh) worth Rs 13.87 crore in November 2020 to 0.81 million (8.1 lakh) involving Rs 29.72 crore in December. WhatsApp Payments is the latest entrant in the UPI apps segment that is currently led by PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm Payments Bank. PhonePe was on top of the table in December with 902.03 million transactions worth Rs 1.82 lakh crore processed up from 868.4 million transactions worth Rs 1.75 lakh crore processed in November.

Google Pay slipped to the second spot in December with 854.49 million transactions involving Rs 1.76 lakh crore down from 960 million transactions in November even as the value was up from Rs 1.61 lakh crore. Paytm Payments Bank remained at a distant third spot among UPI apps with 256.36 million transactions involving Rs 31,291.83 crore in December from 260.09 million transactions worth Rs 28,986.93 crore in November. Amazon’s payment vertical Amazon Pay managed to process 40.53 million transactions worth Rs 3,508.93 crore in December down from 37.15 million worth Rs 3,524.51 in November.

UPI transactions ended 2020 hitting the Rs 4-lakh-crore value mark in December involving 2.23 billion transactions, up from 2.21 billion transactions worth Rs 3.91 lakh crore in November. The annual growth in volume was 70 per cent from 1.30 billion transactions while the value was up 105 per cent from 2.02 lakh crore in December 2019. Also, the number of banks live on the UPI platform increased from 143 to 207 during the 12-month period.

PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm Payments Bank together had a lion’s share of 89 per cent (2 billion transactions) in terms of volume and 93 per cent share (Rs 3.89 lakh crore) in value. The UPI transaction volume and value have been able to grow faster during the Covid and lockdown phases as people increasingly transacted digitally. The volume jumped by 908.47 million transactions during the 10-month period from 1.32 billion transactions in February 2020, according to the analysis of NPCI data. However, in comparison, similar volume growth of 908.47 million transactions, before Covid, took 17 months (from September 2018) to reach the February 2020 level.