PayPal reports twelve-fold jump in revenue in India

United States-headquartered digital payments company PayPal has reported an over twelve-fold jump in revenue generated by its Indian payments subsidiary to Rs 260 crore in financial year 2018 from Rs 21 crore in the previous year, as per data sourced from the corporate affairs ministry.

The surge can be attributed to the opening of the domestic payments business by the company which had engaged only in cross-border transactions until November 2017.

Net profit grew at a relatively modest pace, up to Rs 2 crore from Rs 1.4 crore during this period.

PayPal declined to comment on the filings, but a person privy to the information told ET on condition of anonymity that with revenues going up the company had increased investments in India across heads including technology augmentation, expansion of headcount in India and a new office in Mumbai.

The company, which has been among the most popular players for cross-border transactions, entered the fiercely competitive domestic payments business by entering into partnership with online merchants such as Book My Show, MakeMyTrip, Yatra, GoIbibo, FreshMenu and Box8 to allow Indian consumers to start using the PayPal wallet.

“While the basic payment platform coupled with the security features are the same as in the US, we have added local modifications here like two factor authentication, etc. as per regulatory requirements,” said the person cited earlier.

PayPal’s peers in India would include payment entities such as Paytm, PayU India and BillDesk. While Paytm is primarily in the mobile wallet and UPI business, BillDesk and PayU are in the payment gateway segment.

As per filings sourced from the corporate affairs ministry Billdesk reported a net revenue of Rs 929 crore for 2018. Its net profit went up 7.4% to Rs 148 crore from Rs 137.8 crore in 2017.

PayU India, which runs Citrus Pay platform, reported consolidated revenue of Rs 670 crore for 2018. The Naspers-owned entity is expanding its services to lending as well through its product LazyPay and hopes to see an increase in revenue in the coming years.

Paytm, the country’s largest consumer payment company, reported its wallet numbers as part of the filings of Paytm Payments Bank and said that it earned Rs 654 crore from income from brokerages, commissions and usage of its wallet business.