Amazon planning to launch a standalone payment app in India

Although it was introduced in 2007, Amazon Pay needed over a decade to reach countries like Malaysia, Hungary, or India. Now, it looks like being integrated into the e-commerce platform is not offering this online payment processing service enough exposure in the world's most populous country, so Amazon officials are planning to take this module out of the platform and turn it into a standalone app.

According to no less than three sources familiar with Amazon India's inner workings who spoke to TechCrunch, the e-commerce giant wants to increase the reach of the service in the local market. Two of these insiders revealed that Amazon has been considering this for roughly a year, and the plan will be set in motion in the months to come. As mentioned by another source, the company has already applied for approval from the NPCI.

A dedicated app would help Amazon Pay "gain wider recognition in the country" due to the fact that, at least according to some executives, the payment service is not receiving enough exposure as part of the Amazon e-commerce platform. The anonymous sources claim that these plans are confidential and the discussions are ongoing, so depending on the market's evolution, Amazon might abandon the idea. When asked to comment on the matter, an Amazon spokesperson declined and only said this was mere speculation.

Last month, Amazon Pay was sixth among apps and services on the Unified Payments Interface, the most popular payments network in India. With 72.4 million transactions, it accounted for just 0.5% of the total, while Google Pay processed 5.3 billion, being outpaced by Walmart's PhonePe with 6.9 billion.

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