Amazon and Meta are some of the major companies preparing to lobby India’s payments body about the dominance of Walmart-owned PhonePe and Google Pay in the country’s expanding instant payments network.
Executives from platforms such as Amazon Pay, WhatsApp, CRED, MobiKwik, and Flipkart’s Super.money are set to meet with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Thursday, according to TechCrunch. NPCI runs the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s instant payments system that handles billions of transactions monthly.
The meeting happens over a year after India postponed plans to limit the market share of UPI apps at 30% until December 31, 2026, which would have restricted any single app’s share of UPI transactions. This delay has allowed PhonePe and Google Pay to maintain their leading positions, raising concerns among smaller players about their competitive capabilities.
Data from NPCI indicates that PhonePe and Google Pay together were responsible for about 80% of the 22.6 billion transactions on the UPI network in March, significantly surpassing competitors like Paytm, Flipkart’s Super.money, CRED, Amazon Pay, and MobiKwik.
Recently, PhonePe reported having over 700 million registered users and 50 million merchants across India, showcasing the scale solidifying its market position. These merchants cover over 98% of India’s postal codes, posing a replication challenge for smaller competitors.
An agenda reviewed by TechCrunch indicates that participants, including Amazon and Meta, plan to express concerns regarding user acquisition methods, product design, and monetization within the UPI framework. Suggestions include restricting dominant apps’ user onboarding and contact data use, advocating for equal access to features like autopay and payment mandates, and seeking incentives and regulatory support to enhance competitiveness for emerging players.
Due to the difficulties in competing with dominant instant payment players, these companies are urging the regulatory body for assistance. However, NPCI, regulated by the Reserve Bank of India, has struggled to control dominance without affecting services used by millions.
NPCI, Amazon, Meta, and others did not reply to comment requests.
It remains uncertain if the meeting will bring immediate changes, as there are still questions on how NPCI could address market concentration.