Sources have informed TechCrunch that Amazon is exploring the possibility of transitioning its payment services in India to a dedicated app, as part of its strategy to enhance the adoption of Amazon Pay within the nation.
Within Amazon’s main shopping app in India, Amazon Pay allows users to execute a variety of financial transactions. These include sending money to people and businesses, paying utility bills, securing insurance and booking tickets, investing in mutual funds and digital assets like gold, and procuring travel tickets.
According to insiders, Amazon has been deliberating on the idea of segregating its payment mechanism from its shopping app for roughly a year and is planning to advance with this strategy in the near future. It has initiated contact with the NPCI for approval, another source privy to these plans disclosed.
A few Amazon executives believe that within the confines of the e-commerce app, Amazon Pay is not being given enough prominence, stated one informant. They argue that an independent app dedicated solely to payment services could potentially elevate its profile across India.
Requesting anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the discussions, which are still in progress, the sources also warned that Amazon, which is currently navigating through several obstacles in India, might reconsider its approach or possibly drop the project altogether.
When approached for a comment, an Amazon representative refrained from making any statements, labeling the information as speculative.
In terms of activity on Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the leading digital transaction platform in India, Amazon Pay is ranked sixth. It was responsible for approximately 72.4 million transactions or about 0.5% of the total transactions on the platform in July, as per the official figures. By contrast, PhonePe, owned by Walmart, and Google Pay executed 6.9 billion and 5.3 billion transactions respectively.
Amazon is not the only company reconsidering its approach in India; the nation has proven challenging for the superapp model popular in China. Flipkart, Amazon’s primary competitor in India, merged its fintech operations into a single entity last month, following two years of separation from PhonePe.
Compiled by Techarena.au.
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