PayPal India, the Indian arm of the Nasdaq-listed global digital payments major, is planning to go live with a Universal Payments Interface (UPI)-based digital payment services in the coming months according to a Business Standard report.

If launched, PayPal will compete against existing fintech platforms that offer UPI services that were first introduced by the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI). Apart from NCPI’s BHIM UPI, the platform will join the likes of Google, Amazon, WhatsApp, Xiaomi, and local platforms such as PhonePe and PayTM.

Reliance’s Jio too had launched UPI payments on its MyJio app in January.

PayPal, which was launched in India two years ago, will focus on food tech platforms to expand its services. Siddharth Dhamija, Director, PayPal India had earlier told BusinessLine that food tech will be their main focus area for their domestic payments business in the year 20-21 according to a previous report.

PayPal will soon tie up with a major online food delivery platform according to the report. The platform will also get integrated with the Domino’s app in India this year where it is already present on the brand’s website.

The growth of UPI

Meanwhile, NCPI is bullish on maximizing the number of UPI transactions, helping more people transition to the platform over cash. This would run into a potential user base of 500 million according to Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI as quoted in an earlier report.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) registered a record amount of transactions in January 2020. Though the number of transactions decreased marginally in January to 130.5 crore, the total amount transacted was at an all-time high of ₹2.16-lakh crore.

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