It looks like Paytm is gearing up to foray into the instant messaging market. The mobile payment service is planning to build messaging functionality into its app, according to a latest report from the Wall Street Journal. One of the people familiar with the matter said that the feature could be rolled out as soon as two weeks.
The messaging service in Paytm will allow users to send audio, video, pictures and texts, a person familiar to the matter told the publication. Paytm is said to be working on the messaging service since three months. The move comes from Paytm to garner more users towards its platform and increase user engagement. Backed by Japan’s SoftBank, Paytm currently have more than 225 million users. The company recently received a whopping $1.4 billion in funding from SoftBank to bolster its efforts in India.
Meanwhile, popular messaging service WhatsApp has over 200 million monthly active users as of February in India. The Facebook owned messaging service recently crossed 1 billion daily active user milestone. WhatsApp is also gearing up to launch a UPI-based mobile payment service in India for its platform. Earlier in June, homegrown messaging app Hike Messenger tied up with Yes Bank for UPI and wallet service. Similarly, Truecaller partnered with ICICI bank to implement UPI-based payments. Samsung launched Samsung Pay mobile payments service in India in May.
Digital payments in India will jump nearly 10 times by 2020 to $500 billion, according to a 2016 report by Boston Consulting Group.