Comments
PayPal India, the local arm of the Nasdaq-listed global digital payments major, sees ‘food tech’ emerging as its largest segment, surpassing travel, in the next few years, as more Indians take to online food ordering in a big way.
“Food tech will the our main focus area for our domestic payments business in 2020 and 2021,” Siddharth Dhamija, Director, PayPal India, told BusinessLine .
“We are very confident that both the so-called leaders in the market (in online food delivery) will start working with us this year and the year forward. Food tech is a very important segment for us.”
While Dhamija declined to name the leading food tech merchant that PayPal plans to soon tie up with, market is rife with speculation that it could be Swiggy or Zomato.
Frictionless payment
Payments in this segment have to be as frictionless as possible, which only PayPal can do achieve, said Dhamija. “Today, if we look at food tech, payment is the biggest friction in this (food tech) segment. Our main value proposition is the security and the frictionless solve solution we provide. People love PayPal because it gives the most frictionless experience ever,” he said.
PayPal, which is now among the top five payment processing companies in the world, is in the domestic payments business in 20 countries including China . It was the first foreign company to get a domestic payment licence in China. In India, it has been in the domestic payments business for the last 20 months.
“While we are with all the food tech vendors globally, there is no reason why it should be ignored in India. In every country where we are in domestic payments, all the food tech vendors are with us,” Dhamija said
Over the next 12-18 months, PayPal India’s business plan is to get larger food tech players on board.
“We will work with them and be their growth enabler and ensure that they get the perceived value for which they have onboarded PayPal,” he said. PayPal India’s journey as a payments provider for online food delivery started in early 2019. Pilots were done with smaller merchants such as Freshmenu and Fasoos, and now a large merchant is proposed to be onboarded by February-end, Dhamija said.
Looking East
Till now, most of the growth for PayPal in the food tech segment has come from North, South and West. “East is still an unexplored territory. I am bullish that the East will also contribute to our growth in the food tech segment,” he added.
Dhamija also said that PayPal will soon get integrated with the Domino’s app in India. It is already present on the pizza chain’s website, he said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.