‘80% market share’: Why rivals are raising concerns over PhonePe, Google Pay
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "‘80% market share’: Why rivals are raising concerns over PhonePe, Google Pay")
‘80% market share’: Why rivals are raising concerns over PhonePe, Google Pay
Global tech firms Amazon and Meta are preparing to raise concerns about India’s digital payments market, where PhonePe and Google Pay continue to dominate. Executives from several platforms are expected to meet the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Global tech firms Amazon and Meta are preparing to raise concerns about India’s digital payments market, where PhonePe and Google Pay continue to dominate. Executives from several platforms are expected to meet the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which manages the Unified Payments Interface, one of the world’s largest instant payment systems.
Why are companies raising concerns?
The meeting comes as smaller players struggle to compete in a market largely controlled by two apps.
According to NPCI data:
PhonePe and Google Pay together handled around 80 per cent of UPI transactions
The network processed 22.6 billion transactions in March alone
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This gap has raised concerns among companies like Amazon Pay, WhatsApp Pay, CRED and MobiKwik about limited growth opportunities in the current system.
What Amazon, Meta and others want
Companies attending the meeting are expected to push for changes in how the UPI ecosystem operates.
Key concerns include:
User onboarding practices by dominant apps
Use of contact data for expanding user base
Access to features like autopay and payment mandates
They are also likely to request:
Fair access to platform features
Incentives for smaller players
Regulatory support to improve competition
The goal is to create a more balanced system where newer or smaller apps can grow.
Delay in market share cap adds to debate
India had earlier proposed a rule to limit any single UPI app’s market share to 30%.
However, this rule has been delayed until December 31, 2026, allowing dominant players to continue expanding.
This delay has made it harder for smaller platforms to gain market share, as the gap continues to widen.
Scale advantage of PhonePe and Google Pay
PhonePe has reported:
Over 700 million registered users
Around 50 million merchants
Its services are available across more than 98% of India’s postal codes, showing its wide reach.
Such scale makes it difficult for competitors to match user base and merchant networks.
Regulatory challenge for NPCI
The National Payments Corporation of India faces a complex task.
It needs to:
Maintain smooth services for millions of users
Address concerns about market concentration
Ensure fair competition without disrupting the system
The organisation operates under the supervision of the Reserve Bank of India.
What happens next?
It is not yet clear whether the meeting will lead to immediate changes.
However, the discussions highlight a key issue in India’s digital economy how to balance innovation, scale and fair competition in a system used by hundreds of millions of people. As the UPI ecosystem continues to grow, decisions taken now could shape the future of digital payments in India.
