Et Tu Paytm? New Chat Feature Coming Soon On Paytm!

The new buzzword going around the digital world is chat based commerce, whose #1 player as of now is, without doubt WeChat from China. Just to give a perspective of the market, users of WeChat in China sent and received payments worth $1.2 trillion last year.

And latest to jump into this bandwagon is India-born Paytm, which is about to launch their own chat service.

This way, Paytm is directly pitching against WhatsApp and Hike in the messenger war, and the battle lines have been drawn.

Can Paytm crush this market and emerge as eventual winners?

Paytm’s New Chat Service Coming Soon

As per a report published in ET, an unnamed source has claimed that Paytm will soon launch their chat service, catering to the growing communication demands of their 230 million wallet and Paytm Mall users.

As per speculations, this chat service can be used to communicate between users, and if need arises, to talk with the sellers of the Paytm Mall.

Note here, that Paytm hasn’t revealed any information yet, as they have kept the cards closed as of now.

In 2014, Paytm had launched a shopping app, which allowed chats, and bargains. However, after a grand launch, their focus shifted entirely to their wallet business, and then to the Paytm Bank.

However now, it seems that Paytm is all set to attack the market of chat based commerce with a new vigour, and ambition.

Chat Commerce In India: Current State

In India, the market of chat commerce is still in its nascent stage, as the existing players are preparing themselves, and devising the go-to-market strategy.

Bharti Airtel backed Hike messenger has already become India’s first messenger which allows UPI based transactions for peer-to-peer money transfer and other activities. Interestingly, both WeChat in China, and Hike in India are backed by Tencent, which proves that the market potential is tremendous.

WhatsApp, world’s most popular messenger app with more 1.2 billion users, have already received approval from NPCI to introduce app-based payment services, which would be based on UPI interface.

If we talk about WeChat, then their 700 million odd users transacted close to $550 billion in bank transfers, and more than $700 billion buying products, booking services, and tickets and exchanging gifts. With 0.1% commission charges on bank transfers, WeChat managed to earn around $46 million per month just from commissions.

Even Flipkart is planning to venture into this territory.

Now, Paytm has already active wallet users, and now ecommerce users as well. Introduction of a chat service, which doubles up as payment platform would be shot in the arm for Paytm.

We will keep you updated as we receive more news.