With ‘Paytm Karo’ being the synonym for payment through QR codes in India, the army of merchants associated with us has strengthened over the years. As pioneers of mobile payments and QR technology, we have continued with innovative and affordable payment solutions for our merchants and consumers. This has brought immense trust in our product, which is reflected through the army of 3.8 Crore merchants from Rishikesh to Varanasi to Gujarat to metro cities like Mumbai, and Delhi, who use the ‘Made in India’ product. In fact, we have merchants in the remotest part of India – Kamle, Handwara, Khour, Kovalam, and Mangrol.
These are merchants who have subscribed to our premium devices including Soundbox, Card Soundbox, Pocket Soundbox, and Card Machine are paying monthly subscriptions for them. The sound of ‘Paytm par 50 rupay prapt hue’ is now the required convenience for merchants and consumers to make transactions quick and secure.
The merchant paying subscription nearly doubled in the last one year from 48 Lakh in Q2FY23 to 92 Lakh in Q2FY24. With this, our leadership in payment monetization continues with the growing number of merchants paying subscriptions for payment devices, indicating their high trust and comfort in our products.
As per our Founder and CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma in a letter to shareholders in August 2023, our philosophy is that payment is the truest acknowledgment of trust and transaction assurance between two parties. We have kept that as our core offering and built many technologies to enable confidence and trust, for e.g., for the small merchants to receive and make mobile payments. We believe India has the potential of at least 10 Crore merchants and more than 50 Crore payment users in the near future.
Talking about the growing merchant subscription and latest payment innovations President and Group CFO, Madhur Deora during the September quarter result said, “Our merchant subscription we’re very proud of has gone up 91% year-on-year. If you’d notice in the last quarter we added more than 13 lakh merchants, which is higher than the run rate that we were enjoying previously. So we’re seeing a definite increase in adoption, the pace of adoption of our devices. I think part of this has to do with the network that we have created and sort of just making this device standard for the merchants and also all the innovation that we are doing such as Pocket Soundbox, Card Soundbox, and Music Soundbox.”
We offer various payment solutions to different types of merchants who make digital transactions on a regular basis. For instance, for entry-level merchants, Paytm QR is and will always remain free. Large retailers can also use the Paytm card machine for accepting payments through mobile as well as card. Meanwhile, online and omnichannel merchants can also use the Paytm platform to accept payments. We also let merchants advertise, and sell gift vouchers and tickets to their customers through our app.
With this, the consumer base has also expanded with an average monthly transacting user (MTU) rising to over 9.5 Crore at the end of September 2023. We also believe that with our subscription as a service model, the strong adoption of devices drives subscription revenues and higher payment volumes, while increasing the funnel for our merchant loan distribution.
