Paytm goes big in Japan: Payment service PayPay acquires these many users in just 10 months

Paytm’s QR-based payment service PayPay launched in Japan in partnership with SoftBank and Yahoo Japan last October has hit 10-million user target along with 1 million stores and 100 million transactions, Paytm Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma tweeted on Thursday. Around mid-July 2019, the service had already acquired 8 million customers in the Japan market. PayPay “aims to promote the broader use of cashless payment in Japan and to provide highly convenient services to both consumers and affiliated stores,” Paytm had said in a blog last year during its launch.

PayPay will partner with South Korea’s digital wallet and payment app KakaoPay — subsidiary of mobile messaging app Kakao to allow KakaoPay’s customers to pay at PayPay stores and restaurants in Japan without signing up on the PayPay platform, as reported by Nikki Asian Review earlier. KakaoPay app will be updated by October this year for users to scan PayPay’s QR code at outlets.

Such partnerships and a similar tie-up of Japanese chat app Line with mobile payment service Naver Pay — operated by South Korean parent firm Naver are occurring to attract more merchants on their platforms as they aim to capture the tourist inflow from South Korea and China ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan, as per Nikki Asian Review, as the government is also promoting digital payments.

The move by Paytm gains significance to dominate Japan market where cash continues to remain the king with wireless transactions “including payments by credit cards and smartphone apps, accounting for just under 20 per cent of personal spending,” according to The Japan Times. 80 per cent of the payments made in Japan is through cash while as per SoftBank’s earlier statement, the Japanese government is looking to improve the cashless payment ratio to 40 per cent by 2025 and further 80 per cent as the long term goal.

Paytm had said last year that PayPay won’t charge any fee for ‘user scan’ type settlement for three years till the end of September 2021 to sellers and establishments.

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