The first wave of digital transactions was created by credit/debit cards. Then came mobile wallets and now, it is the messenger apps which will form the next wave of growth in digital transactions.
In China, for instance, third party mobile payments market is worth $5.5 trillion, which is 50 times more than the market size of the same in the US, which is $112 billion. There are 697 million active users of Wechat in China, and out of them, 200 million had attached their credit/debit cards with the app, in 2015.
And Tencent, which is the owner of Wechat has some similar plans for India as well.
As per reports coming in, Hike, into which Tencent has invested a considerable amount of VC funds, may launch India’s first messenger based mobile payment platform. Tencent and Foxconn had invested $175 million into Hike last year, thereby taking it valuation to $1.4 billion.
And the icing on the cake is the fact that it would be linked with UPI platform.
This way, Hike may very well beat Whatsapp in launching their messenger based payment platform. We had reported earlier this month that Whatsapp will launch their payment platform very soon. As per analysts, it may take up to 6 months for Whatsapp to roll out their payment platform, but it seems Hike is ready, now.
And Tencent’s expertise and experience of making Wechat as China’s biggest messenger based payment platform can actually help Hike a lot.
As per reports coming in, Hike may collaborate with an Indian bank to make the payment platform complete but has refused to share the details of the bank.
Hike has around 100 million users in India, whereas Whatsapp has 200 million users.
Wechat has 1 billion users, while QQ Chat has 800 million users.
What Can Be Done On Messenger Payment App?
Details are not yet in, but if we go by Wechat’s example, there are a lot of activities which can be accommodated within a messenger based payment app. In a way, all digital transactions done by the user, anywhere, can be integrated into one single app, thereby making it easier and more feasible for the user.
In Wechat, users can make the following types of payments:
- Peer to peer money transfer (which is a huge hit in China. 70% of people pay either 88 yuan which means ‘Get rich’ or 520 yuan, which means ‘I love you’
- Splitting bills among friends
- Bill payments
- Ecommerce shopping ( a model which Alibaba is trying, using Paytm’s platform)
- Mobile recharge/bill payment
- Hotel bookings
- Movie tickets
- Taxi booking
- Investments in stocks, mutual funds (Freecharge has already started it)
- And more
Wechat charges 0.1% on all transactions over $150, and as per their 2016 Q4 report, they earned $46 million in one month, only from bank transfers, which means close to $50 billion was transacted, only for this usage, in a month, and it translates to $550 billion in a year.
Will messenger based payment platform work in India? Can Hike prove to be a reliable mobile payment platform? Or Whatsapp will have the last laugh? Do let us know by commenting right here!
