Indians going abroad for a very short period of time usually miss taking Uber and other cab services because of unavailability of international usage of credit cards, forex cards and cashless payments. This situation might not be true for very long now.
Uber has agreed to allow Paytm wallet for payment of any trip taken outside India as well. This agreement is very similar to Uber’s partnership with Alipay to allow ride payments for the Chinese outside their home country. While the news is not official yet, internal sources from Uber have confirmed the collaboration.
Alibaba is one of the investors in Paytm, and a recent post of Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s, Founder – Paytm, facebook page confirms the fact that Uber, Alipay and Paytm are in for going global in terms of payments and ride expenses. We can see more collaborations between the three once the official announcement is out.
What will be the charges and how will consumers pay?
Both Alipay and Paytm users will not have to download the Uber’s app to order a cab. Alipay has already integrated Uber in its app to allow users to book a cab directly from its app, once the wallet is authenticated. Paytm plans to do the same for Indian users.
Talking about the global partnership, Eric Jing, President – Ant Financial said, “Alipay’s collaboration with Uber reflects a step forward of Ant Financial’s global strategy and the collaboration also extends to the Alipay’s strategic global partners like Paytm in India. The collaboration aims to bring better experiences for our users globally.”
There will be no need for a forex card anymore to pay for these rides. The Chinese and Indian customers will be charged in Renminbi and Rupees respectively, and the charges will be calculated at the back-end. Paytm or Uber haven’t disclosed the exchange rates for cab rides.
Although Paytm has confirmed that there will be no hidden fees and the exchange rates will be same as the ones for forex cards. Money will be deducted accordingly, as charged in foreign currency, converted to Rupees from the Paytm wallet.
Who benefits from this collaboration?
Both the parties will benefit from this partnership, Uber and the regional wallet companies. Paytm and Alipay will be enable higher ridership in foreign countries for Uber, while Uber will improve its services for Indians and Chinese travelling abroad.
Indians and Chinese, on the other hand, frequent travellers to countries outside their own will be able to freely pay for their rides on the apps. Paytm’s service will be available by the end of this month.
Next time you’re travelling to Singapore or Malaysia for a getaway, or a business trip to The United States or The United Kingdom, fire up the Paytm app to travel as you would do in India. An exciting news from the payment solutions giant, we are waiting for the official launch of this service.
[…] Uber has agreed to allow Paytm wallet for payment of any trip taken outside India as well. This agreement is very similar to Uber’s partnership with Alipay to allow ride payments for the Chinese outside their home country. […]