Competitors of Paytm:

Post the demonetization announcement in November 2016, India has seen its mobile payment
service sector take a monumental leap. Demonetization spurred the growth of many digital
companies. According to the RBI, digital transactions touched 13 billion rupees across 57
million transactions in November 2016 alone. To understand what Paytm has done different
as compared to other companies, it is vital to understand its competitors as well.

Mobikwik:
Mobikwik is an Indian Company founded in 2009 that provides a mobile based payment
system and a digital wallet. In 2013, the RBI authorized the use of Mobikwik’s wallet. It has
tie-ups with over 50000 merchants such as Dominoes, Big Bazaar, Book My Show, PVR etc.
One of their impressive idea is the introduction of “Cash Pay”, where in you can add money
to your wallet without both online net banking or debit cards. You would need to contact a
Mobikwik agent who will do that for you. It launched a Mobikwik Lite in 2016, that works
well even with 2G connectivity and areas with poor internet connectivity. Mobikwik provides
financial services including loan, accident insurance, life insurance, fire insurance, IMPS
money transfer, credit card payment, mutual funds and DTH recharge. Another feature that
sets MobiKwik apart from other e-wallets is the solution that offers the ability to remove your
account in case you lose your device remotely to prevent unauthorised access. Transaction
history and other account details will be wiped off.
Freecharge:
Freecharge is an Indian Digital marketplace for financial services based in Gurugram which
was started in August 2010. They are available across a range of financial instruments
including savings, payments, insurance and lending. Freecharge does not have as much
partnerships or collaborations as compared to Paytm, but has an edge over speed and the ease
of using the platform. Freecharge has introduced “Auto Pay” to facilitate transactions for any
validity bound recharges or utility bound payments. The payments will automatically take
place from the Freecharge Wallet given that the customer has sufficient balance. It always
had very strategic marketing campaigns to compensate for its lack of number of partnerships,
be it the very large front-page Ad’s. Free Charge took a competitive approach instead and
came up with front page ads to combat the strings of promotional offers advertised by Paytm
(Free Charge’s frontpage ad highlighted ‘Before you Go Cash free, Check Free Charge’, Flat
100 per cent cashback on Free Charge across lakhs of stores’ as a reaction to Paytm’s ad
campaign titled “12:12 Cash free festival, up to 100 per cent cashback, when you pay with
Paytm at over 15 lakh stores between December 9-12”). What struck us the most was the
mere usage of the word ‘flat’ over Paytm’s ‘up to’ in the ads appearing on Times of India
(TOI). In 2018, Free charge enabled BHIM UPI in its digital wallet platform. In 2019, Free
charge launched digital credit cards. While Paytm has the facility of cashback through
coupon code it is usually only on a large amount of money addition, for freecharge even a
trivial transaction earns some or the other cash back. While Paytm has this facility only on a
large amount of money addition, for freecharge even a trivial transaction earns some or the
other cash back.
Digital Trends:
While the usage of cards (46%) and Net banking (11%) saw a decline in 2019, down from
56% and 23% for cards and Net banking respectively in 2018, UPI (38%) went up from 17%
in 2018 and the trend is continuing. Therefore, UPI platforms like Phonepe and Google pay
pose a serious threat to Paytm.

Phonepe:
Phonepe is an Indian company that provides digital payments and financial services
originating in Bangalore in 2015. It is available in over 11 Indian languages. Phonepe
customers can do monetary transactions, utility payments, DTH payments. PhonePe is
accepted as a payment option at over 17.5 million offline and online merchant outlets across
500 cities in India covering food, travel, groceries, medicines, movie tickets etc. The app
crossed 100 million user mark in June 2018 and also crossed 5 billion transactions in
December 2019. It currently has over 280 million users. PhonePe is licensed by RBI for
issuance and operation of a Semi Closed Prepaid Payment system. It has a comparatively
better interface as compared to Paytm. It has issued regarding the violation of NPCI rules in
2017, but it came back strongly to be one of three leading giants in the digital payments’
platforms, the other being google pay and Paytm. According to a Bloomberg report in 2019,
Paytm has more market share as compared to Phonepe but with more than 290 million
transactions, it slowly seems to be getting the edge.

Google Pay:
Google Pay is a digital wallet and online wallet platform to power in-app, online, and in-
person contactless purchases on mobile devices, enabling users to make payments with
Android phones released initially in 2015. It has deep pockets compared to many of its
competitors and could sustain offers and paybacks for a comparatively larger period of time.
Unlike the other digital wallets google pay does not have a wallet and the money is credited
and debited directly from the account. For bill payments it relies on BharatBillPay and does
not have a lot of vendors like Paytm. Unlike Paytm it does not require a KYC, you can
directly link your bank account. It does not offer services through credit cards like Paytm.

References:
1. https://www.wealthpedia.in/paytm-vs-google-pay/
2. https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/technology/paytm-vs-google-pay-vs-phonepe-
who-is-winning-4760421.html
3. https://bfsi.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/fintech/paytm-seeks-a-niche-as-
googlepay-phonepe-close-in/73753602
4. https://www.techphlie.com/2016/06/paytm-vs-freecharge-which-one-is-for-you.html
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freecharge
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MobiKwik
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonepe
8. (PDF) OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS: THE STORY OF PAYTM DURING
DEMONETISATION (researchgate.net)