The Smart Wallet

An expert-backed primer for digital payment apps

- Mamta Sharma

Early this year, when I moved from Mumbai to Chennai, language posed a great barrier. It was difficult to call a cab and pay for a ride without help. Then Ola Money, the taxi-hailing company Ola’s digital wallet app, saved the day. I simply had to load it with money using net banking or my credit/debit card, and the app was ready to go. On reaching my destination, I paid my fare digitally. It was instant and without the hassles of swiping my card, keying in a 16-digit number or logging on to a bank’s website involving OTPs. I soon learnt this wallet could do much more—it could help pay phone bills, book flight tickets, order a pizza and even transfer money to another Ola Money account.

“Unlike in the West, the Indian economy is culturally cash-intensive. So we’d often prefer to make small payments—say from `10 to a few hundred rupees—by cash,” says Mukul Shrivastava, partner, fraud investigation and dispute services, Ernst & Young, Mumbai. “The newfound comfort of using a digital wallet has a lot to do with our ease with smartphones. These wallets are simple to use and offer the convenience of technology in your palm,” he adds. With increasing smartphone penetration and easy access to the internet, this digital payment option is rapidly catching on. A recent study by Google and the Boston Consulting Group forecasts that India’s digital payment industry is likely to be worth $500 billion by 2020. Already, mobile wallet companies like Paytm, MobiKwik, Citrus, Freecharge, PayU and others have been making our life easier. Recent Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data show that payments made through mobile wallets have increased from `29.05 million in 2013–14 to `205.84 million in 2015–16 and have surpassed mobile banking in terms of volume.