PhonePe was the most used UPI (Unified Payments Interface) app for December 2020 finally overtaking rival Google Pay after trailing behind for months. The data was collected by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and it accounted for the total transaction that happened across India on all UPI apps.
The total transactions on PhonePe for December 2020 stood at 902.03 million (accounting for ₹1,82,126.88 crores) while the figure for Google Pay was 854.49 million ( accounting for ₹1,76,199.33 crores).
Walmart-owned PhonePe surpasses Google Pay to be the #1 used UPI app
Walmart-owned PhonePe, the digital payments platform has finally eclipsed Google Pay to emerge as the most used UPI app for December. PhonePe processed 902.03 million transactions worth ₹1,82,126.88 crores, according to the data released by the NPCI.
Google Pay dropped down to #2 with 854.49 million transactions that accounted for ₹1,76,199.33 crores. Interestingly, PhonePe and Google Pay accounted for over 78% of the total UPI transactions that took place last month (2,234.16 million). Moreover, the two apps captured over 86% of the overall UPI transaction value with ₹4,16,176.21 crores.
The statistics provided by the NPCI indicated that PhonePe saw over 3.87% increase in the UPI transaction volume in December (902.03) as compared to the 868.4 million transactions in November. Additionally, it saw a 3.8% spike in transaction value in December (₹1,82,126.88) as compared to ₹1,75,453.85 crores recorded in November.
Google Pay, on the other hand, saw a drastic fall of over 11% in transaction volume in December (854.49) in comparison to its dominating numbers in November (960.02 million). The transaction value in December (₹1,76,199.33 crores) did increase as it was an increase from November’s transaction value (₹1,61,418.19 crores).
UPI transactions increase as people spent more in December
Overall, the volume of UPI transactions grew by 1.08% in December while it also had a 6.43% increase in value. Moreover, there were 207 active banks with UPI support in December, which is up from 200 banks in November.
Previously, NPCI had announced in November a cap of 30% on the total volume of UPI transactions that were processed by TPA (Third-party apps) providers. That cap has come into practice since the start of January and is expected to have a major impact on platforms like PhonPe and Google Pay. However, it does give a scope to further increase to MobiKwik and Paytm.
