PhonePe has further strengthened its position in India’s UPI ecosystem as December saw a staggering 9.81 billion transactions initiated by customers, amounting to Rs 13.61 lakh crore, based on data gathered from NPCI disclosures. This Walmart-backed fintech maintained a commanding 45.35% market share in volume and 48.68% in transaction value among the leading ten UPI applications during this month.
Highlights
Key Competitors in UPI Transactions
Google Pay held the second spot with 7.5 billion transactions, representing a 34.64% share of total transaction volume and 34.25% of the overall transaction value. Paytm continued to secure third place, processing 1.65 billion transactions in December, which accounted for a 7.65% share by volume and 6.32% by value.
Fragmented Market Beyond the Top Three
The activity outside the top three platforms was quite dispersed. Navi processed 678 million transactions, while super.money recorded 287 million transactions in the month. The BHIM app, supported by the government, recorded 158 million transactions, with CRED falling to eighth position with 157.25 million transactions. Notably, CRED achieved nearly three times the transaction value compared to BHIM.
Axis Bank’s UPI applications and WhatsApp Pay remained minor players, each contributing less than 1% to the total transaction volumes.
Overall UPI Performance in December
The robust performance at the app level coincided with UPI reaching one of its highest monthly transaction counts in December, totalling 21.63 billion transactions with a value of Rs 27.97 lakh crore. This growth was chiefly driven by the usual year-end spending, consumer demand from festive periods, and an increasing number of users opting for UPI for small offline transactions, particularly in tier II and tier III cities.
Leading Categories for UPI Transactions
In December, UPI transactions were predominantly led by essential consumption sectors, with groceries and supermarkets taking the lead, followed by fast food outlets, restaurants, telecom services, and fuel stations. There was also a notable rise in digital gold transactions, which increased to 183.32 million, worth Rs 2,079.31 crore, up from 123.42 million transactions valued at Rs 1,215.36 crore in November.