India is now among the largest digital payment markets in the world

04th December 2021
India is now among the largest digital payment markets in the world

December 4 2021: Worldline India has released the ‘India Digital Payments Report_Q3 2021’.
The report provides an in-depth analysis of payment trends across traditional channels like debit and credit cards and new payment methods like mobile based payments, e-wallets, consumer spending pattern across all categories based on the transactions facilitated by Worldline India and transactions available in public databases for the period July-September 2021.
Worldline  is the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry and #4 player worldwide.
Some India facts from the report:
With 1.18 billion wireless telecom subscriptions, the world’s second-largest internet population, nearly 1 billion cards, 2.25 billion PPIs, and a plethora of innovative digital payment modes, India is poised to be one the largest and fastest growing digital payments market in the world
Despite the setbacks brought by Covid19 over the past two years, digital payments continued its growth even in the rural pockets across the country. The PIDF status update published by RBI states that over 5.6 million physical and digital devices have been deployed across tier 3-6 centers in addition to north-eastern states as at end of September 2021. Owing to India's robust growth across diverse sectors such as Telecom, Healthcare, IT, Retail, Automobile, Agriculture among others, the need for sustainable, secure and inclusive payment methods is gaining momentum.
In India, a significant number of transactions are being done through the mobile phone thanks to the advent of UPI and the rollout of millions of QRs at physical merchant locations. E-commerce transactions that are being completed through UPI also have a mobile component to it. In April 2020, the number of transactions done through mobile apps was 1.12 billion; in June 2021 that number was 3.7 billion. Similarly, the value in April 2020 was INR 3.6 trillion while it was INR 11.4 trillion in June 2021.
In terms of payments made at physical merchants by mobile (also called proximity payments), China leads the way with 81% of smartphone users having made payments in the previous six months. Denmark comes a distant second with 41%. In terms of penetration of mobile payment adoption (which is also a decent indicator of the potential market size), China again dominates at 39.5% followed by South Korea at 29.9% and Vietnam at 29.1%. India is at 6th with 20.2% and the U.S. is at 17.7%. In terms of average annual transaction per user, the U.S. dominates at $7961 while China is at $2300, and India is at $80.
Card issuance: The total number of cards in circulation stood at 985.35 million as of September 2021. Out of which, 920.30 million were debit cards and 65.02 million were credit cards, up by 8.65% and 10.78% YOY respectively.
Prepaid payment instruments: As of September 2021, there were 2.24 billion Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) in the country. Out of which, 225.87 million comprised of prepaid cards and over 2.02 billion comprised of mobile wallets.