Google Pay, the mobile payment arm under Google India, saw its profit in the fiscal year 2019 ended March surge 83% to Rs 3.3 million (USD 46,462), according to the Economic Times.Â
Revenue doubled to Rs 38 million, the report said.
Launched in September 2017 as Tez, Google India rebranded its payment platform to Google Pay in August 2018. It offers a unified payment interface (UPI)-based mobile payment that allows users to pay various types of utility bills, recharge phone credits and internet data, as well as transfer money from one account to another. It also runs Google Pay on its own products Google Play and YouTube.
UPI is a mobile-based payment tool created by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI). Since its launch three years ago, it has experienced significant growth as all payment companies in the country now use UPI as the standard for mobile payments.
Google Pay last month said its monthly average users grew by three times to 67 million in September. Rival PhonePe, owned by Flipkart, raked in monthly active users of 55 million in June.
A recent report by B2B payment solutions company Razorpay said Google Pay is the most preferred app that contributed 62% to the total UPI payments in the third quarter, followed by PhonePe with 25%, and China’s Alibaba-backed Paytm with 6%.
Google Pay, however, may face roadblocks ahead of India’s booming digital payment sector. The government has announced plans to cap the market share of each private payment company at no more than 33% beginning April next year to ensure a level playing field.
