E-wallets' business gets a boost on festive season

CHENNAI: Falling short of cash for the `teen patti` on Di wali night? Try an e-wallet, a hassle-free option that is gaining ground this festive season. It's been a cracker of a ti me for digital wallets (or e wallet) companies. Alibaba backed Paytm has seen 40% growth in its P2P (person-to person) digital wallet transfer during this festive season The company has 100 million wallet users and sees 75 million transactions on its plat form every month. Launched last July , the P2P transfer has been a recent addition.

“Since October 28, we have seen a spike in our P2P digita wallet volumes. Many family members are sending money to their kids. We have also he ard of 20 instances where peo ple have resorted to using their digital wallets for settlements during card games. But this is a viral medium and the numbers will be much higher,“ Nitin Misra, vice-president (products) of Paytm, said.

The shift towards digital payments in card parties is significant because cash ruled the roost on such occasions. “Even though many card parties in cities like DelhiNCR are casual in nature, there was never any substitute for hard cash,“ Misra said.

Similarly , TranServ which has 2 million users for its wallet app, has seen a significant movement in the social payments space this festi ve season. “Around 70% of our transactions is in the social payments space, majority of which is P2P. We are also seeing people using the app or gifting -by either sending a gift voucher online or creating a customized gift and sending it to their loved ones,“ Anish Williams, CEO of TranServ, said.

Williams added that the company's wallet app is also gaining traction when people decide to go Dutch while dining out. “The app becomes useful when it comes to split ing bills.“