California-based fintech platform PayPal is closing down its domestic business in India, the company has announced.

Less than four years after the American fintech giant entered the Indian market, the company has decided to shut down its domestic business in the country.

“From April 1, 2021, we will focus all our attention on enabling more international sales for Indian businesses, and shift focus away from our domestic products in India. This means we will no longer offer domestic payment services within India from 1 April,” a company spokesperson said, as quoted by a TechCrunch report.

PayPal did explain why it was winding down its India business in a long statement.

The news comes as a surprise as the company last year has said that it was building a payments service powered by Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

PayPal had previously partnered with various online services as a payments option including BookMyShow, MakeMyTrip and Swiggy.

The company said that it has processed $1.4 billion in international sales for merchants in India in 2020, as per the report.

It further said that it will continue to invest in “product development that enables Indian businesses to reach nearly 350 million PayPal consumers worldwide, increase their sales internationally, and help the Indian economy return to growth,” as quoted by TechCrunch.

India has emerged as one of the most competitive market for digital payments with multiple players including Paytm, PhonePe, Google, Amazon, and Facebook.

comment COMMENT NOW