NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, November 14, 2016

As India outlawed its two biggest banknotes, mobile wallets are witnessing a spurt in enquiries and usage in small towns, as unavailability of currency hit wide across the country.

Paytm, India’s largest digital payments firm, experienced a never-before surge as the wallet’s daily transactions crossed five million, putting the company on the path to do over Rs 24,000 crore of transactions in the current financial year, as the company got 30% of its transactions from beyond tier-II towns.

This might be the biggest change in India’s digital economy drive as users in small towns – usually dependent on cash – started using the mobile wallet for the very first time.

That’s important as most of the internet users in the cities and bigger towns are already taken and leaving the next frontier of growth to smaller towns and villages – as also stated by global internet companies such as Google and Facebook.