Amazon might launch a separate app for its payments service, Amazon Pay, in India, according to a report by TechCrunch. The aim is to make the platform more popular and easier to use in the competitive digital payments market.
Currently, Amazon Pay is integrated into Amazon’s main shopping app in India. It allows users to send money, pay bills, buy insurance, book travel, and invest in mutual funds and digital gold. For about a year, Amazon has been contemplating separating Amazon Pay from its shopping app.
The report cites two sources who indicate that the company plans to proceed with this idea in the next few months. Amazon has reportedly sought approval from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to make this change.
Some Amazon executives believe that Amazon Pay isn’t getting enough attention within the shopping app. They think that a dedicated app could help the service gain more popularity in India’s crowded digital payments market.
Amazon Pay faces strong competition in India. Recent data shows that Amazon Pay is the sixth most popular app on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a widely used payments network in India. In July, Amazon Pay handled 72.4 million transactions, which is about 0.5 per cent of all UPI transactions.
In comparison, Walmart’s PhonePe led the market with 6.9 billion transactions, followed by Google Pay with 5.3 billion. While Amazon is seriously considering launching a separate app, it faces various challenges in India. The company might still change its mind or decide not to proceed with the plan.