W16100

PAYTM: TARGETING MORE POCKETS FOR ITS MOBILE WALLET

Sandeep Puri, Siddharth Kumar Agarwal, Shivani Upadhyay and Debasish Chatterjee wrote this case solely to provide material for
class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors
may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality.

This publication may not be transmitted, photocopied, digitized or otherwise reproduced in any form or by any means without the
permission of the copyright holder. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights
organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey Business School, Western
University, London, Ontario, Canada, N6G 0N1; (t) 519.661.3208; (e) cases@ivey.ca; www.iveycases.com.

Copyright © 2016, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation Version: 2016-02-22

As the leader in the Indian mobile wallet segment, Paytm was constantly seeking new ways to expand its
presence and encourage growth. In 2015, one of Paytm’s biggest clients, Uber Technologies Inc. (Uber),
which had initially used Paytm’s mobile wallet as its sole form of fare payment, began accepting alternate
payment methods — credit cards, debit cards, and cash — in the major cities that made up Uber’s newly
launched Indian market. While this change in policy enhanced Uber’s position as a service provider, it had
a dampening effect on Paytm’s prospects for a successful year in 2015. Paytm’s founder and chief executive
officer, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, wondered what steps he could take to offset these kinds of changes and
maintain his company’s position as the frontrunner in the rapidly evolving world of mobile commerce.

Despite this dampener, Sharma expressed optimism, stating, “We will be able to break even . . . by 2018.
Currently, the deficit in the amount of money we spend in a month versus the amount of money we make
is about [₹15 million].”1 Sharma’s company had surpassed 100 million users, a number that it expected to
increase to 500 million by 2020.2 These 100 million users carried out more than 75 million transactions
every month.

Sharma’s optimism stemmed from Paytm’s highly successful run after its launch in 2010. The company
had done well and was the leader in the Indian mobile wallet segment.3 But the market had begun to change
to one of fierce competition with regard to clients and competitors. For example, some clients, including
Uber, were taking such actions as adding payment options like cash, credit cards, and debit cards;
collaborating with other mobile wallet providers;4 and even launching their own digital wallet services5 or
working with the competition by adopting the mobile wallet offerings of such financial players as Axis
Bank6 and Yes Bank7 in their attempts to join the mobile wallet trend.8 In the face of such challenges, Paytm
needed to devise ways to stay ahead and stay afloat.

Despite Sharma’s optimism and sustained efforts, could Paytm overcome the market challenges? Did the
strategies and plans of one of its major clients (i.e., Uber) represent a matter of concern for Paytm? If so,
what did Paytm plan to do? What strategies had the management team devised to strengthen its expansion
plans? Paytm was set to launch a virtual card in partnership with the card scheme RuPay9 and some of
India’s national banks. What impediments to the success of its virtual card did Paytm expect? Besides the
organized taxi sector, what other sectors was Paytm targeting for alliances?

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COMPANY OVERVIEW

One97 Communications Limited (One97), a mobile value-added services company, was founded by Vijay
Shekhar Sharma in 2000. It offered business-to-business services, such as developing innovative content,
messaging, and made-to-order network applications that made up part of the telecom operators’ mobile-
marketing offerings.10

By 2009, the mobile world had changed, as smartphones had become more accessible and had grown in
popularity, all of which created several challenges for One97. For example, through telecom operators,
One97 sold a caller ring-back tune that enabled customers to download their favourite tune by using an
operator wallet, and Paytm’s business thrived on the tunes that could be downloaded through telecom
operators for a price. With smartphones, however, pirated tunes could be downloaded for free through the
various mobile apps. Thus, scaling up the existing business became difficult alongside the increasing
proliferation of smartphones.11

By 2010, the online business of topping-up mobile account balances had become popular in the Indian
market. This business addressed the market for prepaid-recharge services by offering an Internet-based
platform where consumers could choose, buy, pay for, and recharge mobile cellular services and direct-to-
home (DTH) services (for satellite television) in India. RechargeItNow.com was the first web-based
platform to offer a multi-service, multi-operator environment supporting online payment by credit card,
debit card, Internet banking, and cash cards by offering an instantaneous online top-up for the accounts on
an all-India basis.12

Internet connection time-outs were the norm in India, and all Indians, including One97 employees, had at
some time faced the frustration of a disruption during a top-up transaction or a movie-ticket purchase. An
office discussion about the problem led the One97 team to start thinking about ways to speed up the
transaction process by eliminating the hindering steps that redirected customers to the bank website to
execute payment.13 Out of that conversation, the idea of Paytm was born and a new payment gateway was
founded. Harinder Takhar, the founding partner of One97 Communications, said that One97 had decided
at the onset that it would set up Paytm as a separate arm: “The reason we went down the incubation path
was to make this team more agile and [to] be much more accepting of mistakes.”14

According to Abhishek Rajan, who was responsible for setting up the commerce business vertical at One97
and for naming this platform, in the first week after the company launched the first version of its prepaid
top-up website in August 2010, Paytm processed just under 40 top-up transactions a day, equivalent to a
total recharge value of ₹5,000. Although miniscule, these transactions provided reason for cheer because
no marketing or promotional campaigns were behind any of the transactions. Users had reached the site
through links on Google and Facebook or by word of mouth. Users were delighted to find a free, month-
long subscription of a Jokes short message service (SMS) pack on every top-up worth 100 or more.15

By the end of 2012, when compared to its competitors, Paytm was able to offer more recharge services to
its end consumers (see Exhibit 1).16 Realizing the high penetration of mobile phones in India, Paytm
launched a recharge-on-the-go concept whereby users could download the Paytm application (app) to their
mobile phones.17

In 2012, Paytm started a service called Paytm Cash that allowed customers to store money with Paytm and
use the balance to carry out various transactions, such as recharges and payments. Paytm Cash reduced
customer dependence on online payment systems to carry out a transaction. In the case of failed recharges,
Paytm immediately issued a refund through Paytm Cash, which removed the uncertainty and ambiguity
from online transactions.18

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In June 2013, Paytm became India’s first online portal to adopt immediate mobile payment service (IMPS),
which linked mobile numbers to bank accounts as a way to enable merchant payments on its mobile site,
website, and mobile app. Paytm had realized that India had more mobile devices than credit cards. IMPS
helped customers with debit cards or Internet banking accounts to perform their transactions on Paytm using
their mobile devices.19

Paytm rolled out the Paytm wallet in February 2014, after having received a licence from the Reserve Bank
of India (RBI) to launch a semi-closed wallet. Users could digitally store cash for mobile and online
transactions and transfer money to other wallet users, but they could not withdraw the money once it was
in the wallet.20

ADVERTISING AND BRANDING OF PAYTM

To establish its recharge business, in July 2014, Paytm launched an advertising campaign worth ₹1 billion.21
The two quirky advertisements, created by Contract, a Mumbai-based advertising agency, were shown on
all major TV channels. The first ad showcased a young man getting an instant recharge on his phone by
placing it under his cat’s legs. The second showed a young woman tapping her phone on the head of a bald
man for a top-up. The voice-over for both ads suggested that getting a top-up would perhaps become that
easy over the years, but until then, customers could choose Paytm.22

Paytm set aside ₹5 billion for promotions in the 2015/16 fiscal year and appointed McCann Erickson as the
agency on record. Brainstorming at McCann led to #PaytmKaro, a new campaign aimed at reinforcing
Paytm’s lead in the mobile-commerce segment and promoting its multiple services (e.g., recharges for
mobile wallet, mobile and DTH; money transfers; and online shopping). Television commercials (TVCs)
that showed Paytm as an alternative to cash and highlighting the convenience of using Paytm in everyday
situations were launched during the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches. According to Paytm’s
senior vice-president, Shankar Nath, these minute-long TVCs blended the company’s multiple services and
reflected on how they enabled a simpler, easier, hurdle-free life for customers. These TVCs also were in
perfect sync with the company’s objective of making daily life simpler for most Indians. Nath believed that
these ads, which portrayed Paytm’s solutions through warm, emotional narratives, would strike a chord
with the audience, and in doing so, would add to the goodwill among users, since their marketing efforts
on IPL would project an even more credible, consumer-friendly view of the brand.23

Also, Paytm was both an associate sponsor on the Sony TV network, which held IPL telecast rights, and
the official partner of one of the IPL teams, the Mumbai Indians.24 Other promotions included multiple
radio ads and the release of various offers and schemes for users.25

THE MOBILE WALLET MARKET

The Global Mobile Wallet Market

The global mobile wallet market was expected to increase from $232.9 billion26 in 2014 to $3,155.1 billion
in 2020, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 52 per cent. The main factors driving the growth of
the global mobile wallet market included an increase in smartphone and mobile Internet users, as well as
the obvious benefits of convenience and accessibility. The increasing consumer preference toward reward
and loyalty programs was expected to provide a major boost to future growth.27 Mobile payments accounted
for nearly 29 per cent of all online transactions globally in the second quarter of 2015.28

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The global mobile wallet market was also growing because of the rapid adoption of mobile payments among
retailers to increase revenues, reduce operating costs, avoid fraud-related losses, and improve customer
satisfaction and experience.29 The key players in the global mobile wallet market were Amazon.com Inc.,
Apple Inc., Citrus Payment Solutions PTE, First Data Corp., Google Inc., MasterCard Inc., One97
Communications Ltd., Oxigen Services India Pvt. Ltd., PayPal Inc., Softcard, and Visa Inc.30 Other
prominent vendors in the market included Airtel Money, Alipay, American Express, Bank of America,
Dwolla, LevelUp, LivQuik, MCX, MobiKwik, m-pesa, Square, Tata Teleservices, Venmo, Y-Cash
Software Solutions, ZipCash, and ZipPay.31

The Indian Mobile Wallet Market

The mobile wallet market in India, although in its infancy, was projected to more than triple in the next five
years. Despite being a new concept in India, the wallet had already surpassed credit cards in terms of the
number of users.32 According to a study by research and consultancy firm RNCOS E-Services Private Limited,
the Indian market size for mobile wallets (m-wallets) stood at approximately ₹3.5 billion in 2015 and was
estimated to rise to ₹12.1 billion by 2019, at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 30 per cent.
This growth was mainly due to the increase in the demand for smartphones, which was estimated to grow at
a higher pace, and to the increase in mobile Internet users. The market penetration of smartphone users in
India had increased from 5 per cent in 2011 to 25 per cent in 2015 and was expected to reach 32 per cent by
2017.33 The digital payment mode was expected to more than double by 2019 (see Exhibit 2).34 M-wallets
had a high capacity as an alternative to traditional and current payment systems in India. Growth observed in
India’s m-commerce sector was attributed to the sector having moved its payment systems to mobile devices.35

The m-wallet segment witnessed high growth as a result of a larger chunk of the working population
purchasing products online. Moreover, to attract new customers, many firms offered discounts during
festive seasons for purchases made with an m-wallet. In addition to their existing services related to banking
transactions and the transfer of money, companies were expanding their service portfolios to include value-
added services like shopping, ticketing, recharging, and bill payments. The money-transfer business
captured the highest mobile payment market share of 38 per cent, followed by recharges at 30 per cent, and
bill payments and utilities areas at 12 per cent.36

Any smartphone user could install the m-wallet app in a handset, create a log-in account, and begin using the
services with a permanent personal identification number (PIN) provided for the purpose. As the chairperson
and managing director of One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, Sharma noted:

More than 40 per cent of our users are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.37 Some of them don’t have
credit cards or even online-banking facilities. Some independent shopkeepers create mobile wallets
for the unbanked people using their own credit cards or online banking facilities, while physically
accepting cash for the amount they deposit in the mobile wallets.38

Despite a promising future, India’s m-wallet segment faced challenges, such as alternative channels offering
money transfers, a general lack of awareness of the service, and banks imposing stringent policies restricting
the cash-out facility, including requiring participating firms to pay fees.39 Another challenge was that most
m-wallet operators in India followed the semi-closed model. Poor Internet connectivity in many areas also
created an obstacle, as did low margins; for example, Paytm earned approximately 1 per cent as transaction
fee on m-wallet payments against the marketplace segment fee of about 5 per cent.40

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THE COMPETITION

Citrus Pay

The Indian m-wallet market contained five players. One of the key players that had garnered considerable
attention among users was Citrus Payment Solutions PTE41 (Citrus Pay). This firm focused on three service
areas: merchant payment services, consumer m-wallets, and a direct-to-consumer app called Cube, which
served as a personal-payments manager that tracked, paid, and reminded users to pay their bills. Citrus Pay
claimed roughly 12 million transactions per month, with an average transaction value of ₹600 a day.42

Oxigen

Oxigen Services (India) Private Limited43 (Oxigen) was one of the oldest players in the market. Apart from
offering merchant payment services and consumer m-wallets, it offered social payments, which enabled
users to transfer money and purchase gifts for their friends and family on social networking and messaging
platforms. While launching this service in August 2014, Pramod Saxena, Oxigen’s chairman and managing
director, told PTI:

The service will find a high usage among the youth who go out for meals with their friends, split
bills, send smaller but more-frequent gifts to one another . . . . Oxigen now sees the opportunity to
leverage the social network connect to India’s 900 million mobile users and 100 million Facebook
accounts, where the youth is rapidly adopting social media apps such as WhatsApp, Twitter, etc.44

MobiKwik

Paytm’s closest competitor was One MobiKwik Systems Private Limited (MobiKwik),45 which was among
the fastest growing m-wallet payment companies after Paytm.46 With growth of 600 per cent in 2014/15,
MobiKwik planned to activate 100 million new digitally paying users by 2016/17.47 Apart from
collaborations with e-commerce companies, MobiKwik’s expansion included the creation of an offline,
pan-India retail network of more than 100,000 merchants as m-wallet cash-loading points and for accepting
m-wallet payments.

In August 2015, together with 20 outlets in the Walmart chain, MobiKwik set up Best Price Modern
Wholesale in nine Indian states with the intent to bring mobile payments to the millions of India’s small
businesses and kirana48 stores.49 MobiKwik also tied up with Big Bazaar, a leading retail chain in India, to
enable the retail firm’s customers to pay for purchases using an m-wallet.50 MobiKwik took a step further
by launching its cash pick-up service to reach out to people who lacked access to bank accounts, credit
cards, and debit cards. Users could request a MobiKwik agent to pick up the cash and load it onto their
MobiKwik wallets.51

PAYTM’S KEYS TO SUCCESS

In a short span of time, Paytm had become India’s largest mobile commerce platform. It boasted more than
100 million registered users who had collectively downloaded approximately 30 million apps. Every month,
more than 15 million active Paytm wallet users conducted 10 million transactions using the Paytm wallet.
According to Paytm’s founder, Sharma, the company entered the market at the right time and found the

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right investors and partners, as its business model differed from those of its competitors, and people were
attracted to it. This same attraction explained why fundraising was never an issue for the company. 52

Paytm was backed by the Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba, and by well-known Indian businessperson,
investor, and philanthropist Ratan Tata, an the chairperson emeritus of Tata Sons Limited.53 In fact, Paytm
became the first company in India to receive funding from Alibaba, which invested $200 million in
February 2015, effectively claiming a 25 per cent stake in the company. Further, Alibaba was in advanced
talks to invest another $375 million to pick up an additional 20 per cent stake in Paytm, which would place
Paytm’s value at $3.7 billion.54 The company had scaled up rapidly over 2013/14, registering year-on-year
growth of more than 300 per cent.55

Transactions on Paytm had a very high success rate. Harinder Takhar, chief executive officer of Paytm,
claimed:

Ninety-nine out of 100 times, transactions are completed within the advertised 10-second frame. If
the bank server is down or the service provider is not working or there is a power outage or your
transaction has just slipped through a crack somewhere, it’s no longer your problem. Paytm will
try and try again for you — until the job is done.56

One of the main reasons for the phenomenal success of Paytm’s wallet was the convenience it offered by
way of cashless, cardless transactions. Consumers could easily make purchases by simply using their
mobile. Also, Paytm had found a solution to the complicated regulatory requirements for online payment,
as stipulated by India’s central bank, RBI, which required a two-step authentication process for all online
transactions. This requirement compromised the speed and the convenience of online payments. Paytm
overcame this inconvenience by offering an m-wallet that could be filled using the two-step verification
process and could then be used repeatedly without the need for any further verification.57 Further, the cash-
back options and discounts it offered were very effective in luring new customers.

During June 2015, in an effort to accelerate growth, Paytm made some high-profile appointments to its board,
including Ruchi Sanghvi, the first woman engineer at Facebook; Neeraj Arora, WhatsApp global business
head; and Naveen Tewari, founder of InMobi.58 Paytm unveiled person-to-person fund transfers in July 2015
to increase the use of Paytm in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets where consumers were not very digitally savvy. In
this hassle-free money-transfer process, users could send money to others with just a couple of taps. Sharma
added, “We did a quiet launch for select users in April, and [we] are now rolling it out to all Paytm users. We
saw good traction in this space, with a million transactions in a day.”59 To enhance the security of the money
transfer, a one-time password was sent via SMS to the person transferring the money.

As a part of its expansion plans, Paytm forayed into the travel market and enabled payments through its m-
wallet. To cover a wide range of bus routes across the country, it partnered with four travel aggregators.60
Sharma said, “Currently, we do 15,000-plus tickets on a daily basis. There have been several occasions
when we crossed 30,000 tickets too.”61 Earlier, Paytm had clinched deals for using its m-wallet for payments
to MakeMyTrip and the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation for booking flights and rail
travel, respectively. Paytm had already collaborated with taxi aggregator Uber to enable riders to use its m-
wallet to pay for rides, and in the future, the company planned to team up with hotels and travel agents as
well.62

According to the existing RBI regulations, a maximum of ₹10,000 could be kept in the m-wallet (after
verification). In the wake of increasing value of transactions, especially in major metros and large cities,
Paytm asked RBI to increase the limit from ₹10,000 to ₹25,000. “Half a million customers spend more than

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₹10,000 (through Paytm) now. We see this [number] growing to a million,” said Sharma. “There is
tremendous demand.”63

FAST FORWARD

Paytm continually sought to expand its presence in the market to ensure ongoing growth. To make the
money stored in its m-wallets usable across a much wider network, in partnership with RuPay and some of
the national banks, Paytm planned to launch a virtual card with a 16-digit number, similar to debit cards
and credit cards. This virtual card would mean the money stored in Paytm wallets would be usable at all
places that accepted debit cards and credit cards; thus, Paytm’s reach was estimated to increase from 35,000
merchants to about 1.5 million merchants. Even consumers who lacked a bank account could use this virtual
card.64

To give people the flexibility of being able to fill their digital wallet in multiple ways, Paytm considered
setting up 30,000 to 50,000 retail outlets where people could add cash to the m-wallet. It also planned to
enrol retail stores (especially kirana stores) as merchants for accepting digital payments. “For India to move
from a cash economy to a cashless one, we need to have a number of places where cash can be converted
into electronic form,” commented Amit Lakhotia, vice-president of payments at Paytm.65

Paytm also planned to link customers’ m-wallets to their bank accounts, which would make it easier to load
cash into the m-wallet. The company also expected more people to adopt the digital wallet after the
implementation of these steps.66

Paytm decided to invest $100 million into its “Go Big” merchant platform (gobig.Paytm.com). This
investment was used to subsidize sellers — especially small and medium sellers — and get them on board.
It planned to have nearly 100,000 merchants on its marketplace by the end of the year 2015.67

THE CHALLENGES

Amid Paytm’s success, certain challenges emerged, including one that involved the new competitor to
traditional taxi companies, Uber. Uber was the developer and operator of the Uber mobile app, which
enabled consumers with smartphones to submit a ride request that was then routed to Uber drivers who
used their own vehicles to pick up and deliver consumers to their destinations. In December 2014, Paytm
had collaborated with Uber to make the Paytm wallet the only mode of payment for Uber rides. As a result,
Uber emerged as one of Paytm’s largest clients in India.68 Since July 2015, however, as part of its own
expansion and marketing plans, Uber had added cash, credit cards, and debit cards as payment options,69 in
addition to offering payment through Bharti’s Airtel Money.70 These strategic moves and partnerships
infringed on Paytm’s business, since many consumers preferred the cash, credit card, and debit card options
over the Paytm wallet.71

The buzz about turning mobile phones into m-wallets and, ideally, turning m-payments into a mainstream
option, fuelled forays into the market by many big players, including banks (SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank,
Yes Bank, AXIS Bank, etc.), credit-card and debit-card operators (e.g., Visa and MasterCard), and some
e-commerce companies.72

Social payment apps also posed a big threat to m-wallets. A social payment app allowed users to transfer
money and mobile recharges to any bank-account holder using social media and e-messaging channels such
as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, SMS or e-mail. Users needed to register their bank account details with

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the app only once, and that account would be set as the default location for all subsequent transactions.
Registered customers could send or ask for money and arrange for a mobile recharge from anyone on their
friends list, without knowing their bank account details, merely by using social media payment apps. Users
could also add multiple accounts and choose the account from which to receive or send the money.73 These
social payment apps had been launched by leading banks such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and Kotak
Mahindra Bank.74

RECHARGE AND REINVENT

The m-wallet segment in India faced several issues, including alternative money-transfer channels, lack of
consumer awareness about the service, and the imposition of stringent policies (e.g., bank-imposed fees)
that restricted the cash-out facilities. Despite these problems, Paytm made every effort to penetrate different
markets to channel its own continuous growth. The company lined up various strategies, including
launching a virtual card, enabling people to fill their Paytm digital wallets in multiple ways, and linking
customers’ m-wallets to their bank accounts.

But with each challenge that Paytm addressed, new client- and competition-related roadblocks arose. Major
clients such as Uber not only began accepting cash, credit-card, and debit-card payment options but also
entered into strategic relationships with Paytm’s competitors and even considered launching their own m-
wallets. Big players in the financial industry also planned to enter the m-wallet arena, posing a potential
threat to Paytm’s supremacy.

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EXHIBIT 1: COMPARISON BETWEEN RECHARGEITNOW, FREECHARGE AND PAYTM

RechargeItNow Freecharge Paytm

Login/continue as guest Login/register as user Login/login from Facebook
Free Coupons from different Coupons not offered for free Free coupons from different
vendors (can’t be chosen) vendors, can be chosen from a
list
Recharge amount can be No list of recharge plans Recharge amount can be
selected from a list of recharge available on site selected from a list of recharge
plans plans
In case of failed transaction, Amount refunded to user as
refund form has to be filled on Paytm cash
website and refund is processed
in 7 days
Interface difficult to use Easy-to-use interface

Source: Anand Rai, “Recharge Sites: How Charged Up Are Their Offerings,” Techcircle.in, January 3, 2013,
http://techcircle.vccircle.com/2013/01/03/recharge-sites-how-charged-up-are-their-offerings/, accessed July 16, 2015.

EXHIBIT 2: A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE MOBILE PAYMENT MARKET IN INDIA

Projected Consumer Payment Payment Flows By User Segment

Modes

10% C-B Others 7%

Cheque 7% 11%
B-Gov
Digital 50%
24% 3%
B-C
Cash 40% 7%
69% B-B
72%
2019 2015

Present(2015) 2019
Online Payment through ₹1,300 billion ₹3,000 billion
Mobile
M-bill payment ₹33 billion ₹250 billion
In 2015, m-commerce is projected to represent 60% of Indian e-
commerce
In 2015, mobile transactions are expected to total ₹1,000 billion, four
times more than in 2014
In 2015, mobile wallet usage is projected to grow 200% over usage in
2014

Note: C-B = Consumer to Business; B-Gov = Business to Government; B-C = Business to Consumer; B-B = Business to
Business; M-bill payment= mobile bill payment; M-commerce = mobile commerce
Source: Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., “Wallets Are Going Mobile Now,” The Economic Times, June 25, 2015,
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-06-25/news/63831652_1_mobile-wallets-investment-firm-advisors,
accessed July 24, 2015.

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ENDNOTES
1
₹ = INR = Indian rupee. ₹1 = US$0.02 as of July 1, 2015; N. Anand, “Paytm Looks to Invest in 10-15 More Firms in 2 Years:
Vijay Shekhar Sharma,” Business Standard, August 12, 2015.
2
S. Agarwal, “This Will Catapult Us into a Very Different League: Vijay Shekhar Sharma,” Business Standard, August 20, 2015.
3
The Hindu Business Line, “Alibaba Arm Buys 25% in Paytm Parent for $700 M,” The Hindu Business Line, February 5, 2015.
4
R. Raj, “Uber-Airtel Money Tie-Up Gives Firm an Edge over Rivals,” The Financial Express, August 22, 2015.
5
D. Mishra, “Uber Plans Own Mobile Payment Wallet in India,” The Times of India, September 1, 2015.
6
Axis Bank, “e-Wallet Card,” www.axisbank.com/personal/pay-bills-shop/e-wallet-card/online/comments.aspx, accessed
December 4, 2015.
7
Yes Bank, “Yes PayNow,” www.yesbank.in/branch-banking/yes-pay-now.html, accessed December 4, 2015.
8
S. Mehta, “SBI, Axis & Yes Bank Gear Up to Take on Paytm, Mobikwik,” The Economic Times, July 15, 2015.
9
Paytm, “Save with Your RuPay Debit Card,” https://paytm.com/offer/rupay/, accessed September 5, 2015.
10
Team YS, “Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder, One97 Communications Limited,” YourStory, June 27, 2010,
http://yourstory.com/2010/06/vijay-shekhar-sharma-founder-one97-communications-limited/, accessed July 14, 2015.
11
C. Khurana, “PayTM, the 10-Second Gateway,” Livemint, June 15, 2013.
12
Team YS, “NASSCOM EMERGE 50 Showcase 1: Online Recharge,” YourStory, August 9, 2010,
http://yourstory.com/2010/08/nasscom-emerge-50-showcase-1-online-recharge-2/, accessed July 14, 2015.
13
Ibid.
14
Khurana, op. cit.
15
A. Rajan, “Paytm Flashback!” #PaytmKaro: The Official Paytm Blog, March 5, 2012, https://paytm.com/blog/Paytm-
flashback/, accessed July 16, 2015.
16
A. Rai, “Recharge Sites: How Charged Up Are Their Offerings,” Techcircle.in, January 3, 2013,
http://techcircle.vccircle.com/2013/01/03/recharge-sites-how-charged-up-are-their-offerings/, accessed July 16, 2015.
17
Team YS, “Paytm Gets a New Look,” YourStory, April 5, 2012, http://yourstory.com/2012/04/Paytm-gets-a-new-look/,
accessed July 16, 2015.
18
P. Chamikutty, “Paytm Implements IMPS Mode of Payment, a Method That Allows Online Recharge Through SMS,” Your
Story, June 26, 2013, http://yourstory.com/2013/06/Paytm-become-the-first-online-portal-to-implement-imps-mode-of-
payment-a-method-that-allows-online-recharge-through-sms/, accessed July 23, 2015.
19
Ibid.
20
R. Nair, “Paytm Allows Digital Wallet Users to Transfer Money Between Them,” The Economic Times, September 15, 2014.
21
Satrajit Sen, “Paytm Promotes Itself as an Alternative to Money,” Advertising Age, April 15, 2015,
www.adageindia.in/marketing/cmo-strategy/paytm-promotes-itself-as-an-alternative-to-money/articleshow/46921936.cms,
accessed July 17, 2015.
22
Paytm, “Watch Paytm TV Ad Films,” #PaytmKaro: The Official Paytm Blog, August 1, 2014, https://paytm.com/blog/watch-
Paytm-tv-ad-films/, accessed July 17, 2015.
23
Ibid.
24
J. Vardhan, “Paytm Spends $32 M to Seal Deal with BCCI for Sponsoring All Bilateral Series to Be Played by India over
Next 4 Years,” Your Story, July 30, 2015, http://yourstory.com/2015/07/paytm-bcci-deal/, accessed January 28, 2016.
25
YoChef, “Paytm,” Yo! Success, February 13, 2015, www.yosuccess.com/success-stories/Paytm/, accessed July 17, 2015.
26
All currency amounts are shown in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.
27
Market Watch, “Global Mobile Wallet Market Is Expected to Grow at 52% CAGR During 2015 – 2020: P&S Market
Research,” December 17, 2015, www.marketwatch.com/story/global-mobile-wallet-market-is-expected-to-grow-at-52-cagr-
during-2015---2020-ps-market-research-2015-12-17, accessed December 18, 2015.
28
Vijay Koduri, “How Smartphones Will Become the Global Mobile Wallet,” Forbes/Tech, July 15, 2015,
www.forbes.com/sites/valleyvoices/2015/07/15/how-smartphones-will-become-the-global-mobile-wallet/, accessed
December 18, 2015.
29
Global Industry Analysts, Inc. “The Global Mobile Wallet Market: Trends, Drivers and Projections,”
www.strategyr.com/MarketResearch/Mobile_Wallet_Market_Trends.asp, accessed December 18, 2015.
30
TechNavio, Global Mobile Wallet Market 2015-2019, Research and Markets, March 2015,
www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/3129407/global-mobile-wallet-market-2015-2019, accessed December 18, 2015.
31
Ibid.
32
Ishan Bakshi and Sounak Mitra, “Mobile Wallet Outshines Credit Cards in India,” Business Standard, January 12, 2015.
33
eMarketer, “Share of Mobile Phone Users That Use a Smartphone in India from 2014 to 2019,” Statistica – The Statistics
Portal, November 9, 2015, www.statista.com/statistics/257048/smartphone-user-penetration-in-india/, accessed July 19, 2015.
34
Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., “Mobile Wallet Market to Cross Rs 1,200 Crore by 2019,” The Economic Times, November
23, 2014.
35
Ibid.
36
Ibid.
37
Reserve Bank of India, “Section 23 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949: Relaxations in Branch Authorisation Policy —
Annex II (Details of Tier-Wise Classification of Centres Based on Population),”
https://rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=5398&Mode=0, accessed October 28, 2015.

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38
Reserve Bank of India, “Section 23 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949: Relaxations in Branch Authorisation Policy —
Annex II (Details of Tier-Wise Classification of Centres Based on Population),”
https://rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=5398&Mode=0, accessed October 28, 2015.
39
Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., “Lack of Awareness, Bank Deposit Fee Hinder mWallet India Growth,” The Economic Times,
June 29, 2014.
40
Ibid.
41
Citrus Payment Solutions PTE, “About Us,” http://www.citruspay.com/about-us.html, accessed December 18, 2015.
42
Press Trust of India, “Sequoia Capital-Backed Citrus Payment Solutions Guns for $4B GMV Strike Rate in FY16,” YourStory,
August 17, 2015, http://yourstory.com/2015/08/sequoia-capital-backed-citrus-payment-solutions-guns-for-4b-gmv-strike-rate-
in-fy16/, accessed August 18, 2015.
43
Oxigen Services (India) Private Limited, “Our Services”,” www.oxigenwallet.com, accessed December 18, 2015,
44
Press Trust of India, “Now, Send Money Over Social Networks With Oxigen Wallet App,” Gadgets 360, August 14, 2014,
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/now-send-money-over-social-networks-with-oxigen-wallet-app-576062, accessed August
18, 2015.
45
One MobiKwik Systems Private Limited, “MobiKwik Wallet”,” www.mobikwik.com/, accessed December 18, 2015.
46
J. Vardhan, “With 17 M Wallet Users, MobiKwik Plans to Raise $100 M and Double Its Headcount This Year,” Your Story,
May 22, 2015, http://yourstory.com/2015/05/mobikwik-growth-story-funding-plans/, accessed August 19, 2015.
47
Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., “MobiKwik Aims to Process $5 Billion Transactions in Next 2 Years,” The Economic Times,
August 10, 2015, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-08-10/news/65415371_1_mobikwik-wallet-digital-india-
payments, accessed August 2, 2015.
48
Kirana stores referred to small, neighbourhood grocery stores.
49
IANS, “MobiKwik, Walmart Announce Exclusive Partnership,” The New Indian Express, August 4, 2015,
www.newindianexpress.com/business/news/MobiKwik-Walmart-Announce-ExclusivePartnership/2015/08/04/article29573
55.ece, accessed August 11, 2015.
50
Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., “Big Bazaar Ties Up with MobiKwik for Mobile Wallet Service,” The Economic Times, July 12,
2015.
51
ANI, “MobiKwik Introduces Cash Pickup; Brings Bank to User’s Doorstep,” The Financial Express, July 30, 2015.
52
Paytm, “About Us,” https://paytm.com/about, accessed August 5, 2015.
53
J. Vardhan, “Paytm Secures Funding from Ratan Tata, Plans to Have 100M Wallet Users by Year End,” YourStory, March
13, 2015, http://yourstory.com/2015/03/Paytm-funding-ratan-tata/, accessed August 20, 2015.
54
G. Aulakh and P. K. Jayadevan, “Alibaba in Advanced Talks to Increase Stake in Paytm to 40%; Deal May Value Indian e-
Tailer at Rs 23,600 Crore,” The Economic Times, June 30, 2015.
55
P. Mallikarjunan, “Paytm Hits High Growth Curve,” The Financial Express, June 8, 2015.
56
Ibid.
57
S. Walia and S. Dutta, “India’s Largest Mobile Payment Company Is Sitting on a Ticking Time Bomb,” March 13, 2015,
http://qz.com/361020/indias-largest-mobile-payment-company-is-sitting-on-a-ticking-time-bomb/, accessed August 20, 2015.
58
Times Internet Limited, “Paytm Makes High-Profile Appointments to Spearhead Growth,” Business Insider India, June 24,
2015, www.businessinsider.in/Paytm-makes-high-profile-appointments-to-spearhead-growth/articleshow/47796481.cms,
accessed July 21, 2015.
59
R. Mukherjee, “Paytm Unveils P2P Fund Transfers,” The Times of India, July 10, 2015.
60
Business Standard Private Limited, “Paytm Enters Bus Ticketing Business; Hotels Next,” Business Standard, July 3, 2015.
61
J. Vardhan, “Paytm Enters Travel Market with Bus Ticketing, Processes 15K Bus Tickets Daily,” YourStory, July 2, 2015,
http://yourstory.com/2015/07/Paytm-bus-ticketing/, accessed July 17, 2015.
62
Ibid.
63
N. Shivapriya, “Paytm Asks RBI to Raise Cash Limit for Mobile Wallets to Rs 25k from Rs 10k,” The Economic Times, July
17, 2015
64
S. Agarwal, “Paytm to Launch Virtual 16 Digit RuPay Card,” op. cit.
65
M. Shetty, “Paytm Plans Up To 50,000 Outlets,” The Times of India, February 20, 2015.
66
Ibid.
67
P. K. Jayadevan, “Paytm to Invest Rs 640 Crore to Help Sellers Go Online,” The Economic Times, July 8, 2015.
68
Ibid.
69
HT Correspondent, “Delhiites Can Now Pay for Uber Rides by Cash,” Hindustan Times, September 3, 2015,
www.hindustantimes.com/tech/delhiites-can-now-pay-for-uber-rides-by-cash/story-yA5PBR25BOenfrHeUfI8wN.html , accessed
September 8, 2015.
70
Ibid.
71
Bernard Lunn, “The Social Wrapper Comes off as Uber Competes Head on in Payments in India,” Daily Fintech, September
15, 2015, http://dailyfintech.com/tag/uber-of-banking/, accessed September 17, 2015.
72
Euromonitor, “The Mobile Wallet: Global Opportunities and Challenges of Making M-Payment Mainstream,” Euromonitor
Passport, July 2012, www.euromonitor.com/the-mobile-wallet-global-opportunities-and-challenges-of-making-m-payment-
mainstream/report, accessed August 10, 2015.
73
Axis Bank, “Ping Pay by Axis Bank,” www.axisbank.com/WebForms/ping-pay/index.html?AboutPingPay, accessed August
10, 2015.
74
“Axis Bank Launches 'Ping Pay' for Fund Transfers,” The Hindu Business Line, May 7, 2015.

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