PayPal applies for mobile wallet license in India

One of the world’s largest online payment companies, PayPal is planning to enter the booming mobile wallet business in India, according to Mashable and other reports.

The way in which consumers globally pay is changing very fast. As the habit of shopping evolves, e-commerce and m-commerce methods such as in-app and one-click ordering are becoming more and more popular. In addition, the increasing growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) is introducing a lot of alternatives for new payment use-applications.

PayPal, the California-based firm has applied for a prepaid payment instrument (PPI) in India. This comes at the right time when the payment sector in India is abuzz with potential foreign investments, mergers, and acquisitions.

The global corporate mogul, Amazon, received a PPI license from India's federal bank which enables it to operate Amazon Pay services. WhatsApp too is reportedly looking at launching payments in India, its biggest market in the world. 

The highly competitive mobile wallet market is presently dominated by Paytm which has 200 million users. Other players include Mobikwik, PhonePe, owned by India's biggest online retailer Flipkart, the newly launched Jio Money that belongs to the country's richest man, Freecharge which might soon be integrated into Paytm, and wallets operated by telecom carriers, Airtel and Vodafone.  

Mobile wallet adoption happened almost by coercion as a result. But now, aided by the government's push for a Digital India, it is slowly becoming a way of life. 

PayPal, meanwhile, has 203 million customers in more than 200 markets across the world. While Indian users can still hold PayPal accounts, there is no domestic product yet. It had reportedly been in talks with Flipkart too for an investment in PhonePe.

But nothing came of it. And the company is now exploring other entry routes to India. 

"PayPal does not comment on market speculations and rumors," an official spokesperson told Mashable.