Amazon Pay might reportedly become a standalone app in India
Amazon is contemplating the transition of its financial services, Amazon Pay, into an independent application in India. This information was disclosed by three insiders familiar with the matter to TechCrunch. The move is part of the e-commerce giant's strategy to increase the usage of Amazon Pay across the country. Currently, Amazon Pay is integrated within Amazon's shopping app in India.
Amazon Pay's features and potential separation
Amazon Pay allows users to conduct various financial transactions such as transferring money to individuals and merchants, paying bills, purchasing insurance and travel tickets, and investing in mutual funds and digital gold. The plan to separate this service from the main e-commerce app has been under consideration for approximately a year. The implementation of this plan is expected in the upcoming months.
Aim for wider recognition and challenges
Some Amazon executives believe that Amazon Pay is not getting sufficient attention within the e-commerce app. They claim that a separate app with a singular focus could help the payment platform gain wider recognition in India. However, these plans are subject to change due to various challenges faced by Amazon in the country, and there's a possibility that the idea could be abandoned altogether.
Amazon Pay's performance and market competition
As per official data, Amazon Pay ranks sixth among apps on Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India's most popular online transaction network. Last month, it processed about 72.4 million transactions, accounting for around 0.5% of all transactions on the network. This figure pales in comparison to Walmart's PhonePe and Google Pay, which processed 6.9 billion and 5.3 billion transactions respectively during the same period.
