The year 2023 was a landmark for us. We have emerged as a powerhouse, where we have achieved major milestones that define our transformative journey. Our trajectory in 2023 stands as a testament to our resilience, adaptability, and unwavering commitment to shaping the future of digital finance. As we have entered the new year with a commitment to achieve more by helping our users, here is a closer look at our key achievements in 2023 in innovation and growth.
Offering Convenience & Innovation with Music Soundbox, Pocket Soundbox and Card Soundbox
We pioneered mobile payments in India and led mass adoption with innovations like QR Codes and Soundbox. We expanded our successful and pioneered Paytm Soundbox and have invested heavily in our IoT device. This year, we launched Pocket Soundbox, Music Soundbox, and Card Soundbox enabled with 4G technology, completely designed and made in India to benefit and cater every segment of the merchants.
The first-of-its-kind portable device, Paytm Pocket Soundbox, can fit in our users pocket and is as small as a debit card. Empowering merchants who are always on the move, the device gives instant audio payment alerts. It is an industry-first portable device that comes with all the powerful features of the iconic Paytm Soundbox. It provides 5-day battery life and a torch to keep going even in low-light conditions.
Our Music Soundbox doubles up as a speaker that issues payment notifications and can also be connected to the phone to play music through Bluetooth. It comes with 7-day battery life and a powerful 4W speaker. There’s also a unique voice overlay feature that enables the merchant to hear payment notifications over the music being played.
While the Card Soundbox, enables merchants to accept both mobile and card payments across all Visa, Mastercard, Amex and RuPay networks through our iconic Soundbox with built-in ‘tap and pay’ functionality through which merchants can accept card payments up to ₹5,000. The device is expanding payment acceptance for merchants by combining Soundbox with NFC or contactless debit and credit card payments with mobile payments. It is also our industry-first solution, providing both audio and visual payment confirmation through a LCD display to the merchant and the customer.
Seamless payment services with Paytm AI Router, Paytm UPI SDK, Split-bill feature, and more
In a continuous effort to revolutionise the mobile payment landscape by building in India and for India, some of the other major innovations by us in the year 2023 include Paytm AI Router, Paytm UPI SDK, bond investing on Paytm Money, Split-bill feature and pin favourite contact feature.
Our AI Router is self learning and intelligently routes payment traffic between multiple payment gateways while achieving high payment success rates and low transaction cost. The Paytm UPI SDK powered by the technology of our associate Paytm Payments Bank (PPBL) and distributed to existing online merchants by Paytm Payments Services Ltd, allows customers of online merchants to make UPI payments directly and in-line from the merchants mobile app without getting redirected during checkout. Users can also enjoy 4X faster UPI payments through a 5X reduction in the number of taps and a 100% elimination of any external redirection. PPBL also went live with UPI LITE in 2023 empowering users with lightning fast UPI payments that never fail.
Our wholly-owned subsidiary Paytm Money Limited launched India’s most advanced bonds platform for retail investors in the year, simplifying bonds for retail investors and enabling them to invest in three types of bonds – government, corporate and tax-free. Bonds on Paytm money app presents investors all relevant information at one place, and converts everything to yield so investors can analyse and understand the returns they can earn.
Paytm Payments Services Limited, our wholly-owned subsidiary became the first in the industry to enable merchants with an Alternate ID (ALT ID) based Guest Checkout solution across networks, allowing customers to checkout as a guest without saving sensitive card details on an e-commerce/ merchant website for a transaction. The Guest Checkout solution cuts down the long process of signing up for an account on the merchant website by sharing additional information and makes purchases faster.
We also launched ‘Free Cancellation’ for international flight tickets booked on our app. Making travel ticket booking seamless and convenient for users, free cancellation is aligned with our company’s user-first approach. Free cancellation is also available on domestic flights, bus and train bookings.
While with the help of the features like Split Bill users can seamlessly divide the amount equally among themselves, eliminating the need of manual calculations. Simply split the bill in the app and it will display the amount to be paid by one and all. Similarly, the pin your favourite contact feature facilitates ease in making repeat payments to their favorite contact. With the help of this feature, users can pin their favorite 5 repeat payments which will always show at the top while transferring money .
Our initiatives have played a pivotal role in bringing the unbanked and underserved into the formal financial ecosystem, thereby contributing to the nation’s economic empowerment.
Use of AI and Tech-Driven Security Measures
Our R&D design and software capabilities are the best in the world, in which Paytm Labs is constantly building various AI and big data features that enhance payment trust, when consumers or merchants use Paytm. Acknowledging the importance of Artificial Intelligence in today’s era, we are taking steps to leverage its full benefit. From the use of Chatbots to using it for innovation, AI is expected to give a boost to our growth.
This year, we also launched our new technology platform that is built with 100% indigenous developed technology. The massive upgrade of our payments platform through an indigenous full-stack development will further boost digital payments in the country. The platform has been revamped, ensuring that the previous technology platform is upgraded with new-age tech solutions that are locally built and supported in-house. It can handle 10X of the current scale of digital payments.
Multiple layers of protection are also incorporated in our platform for business continuity and to manage cybersecurity risks and data security breaches. We use analytics and machine learning to ensure optimum automated fraud detection during transaction processing. Encrypted data transmission using security protocols and algorithms ensures confidentiality and prevents leakage of confidential customer data.
We take immense pride in the groundbreaking achievements that have defined our journey. The year has underscored our commitment to innovation and user convenience, evident in the successful expansion of our revolutionary products.
