Those who were waiting for a new mobile payments service to join India's tech landscape have one reason to celebrate: Xiaomi Mi Pay is now finally available in the country. The system has been in use in China since 2016, and it was apparently tested in India in the second half of 2018.
The Mi Pay app can handle payments across more than 120 banks through debit and credit cards, UPI, and online banking. The service currently supports payment of bills from more than 120 billers and recharging of mobile plans from most of the local wireless carriers.
Xiaomi already integrated the Mi Pay app across the SMS, Contacts, Scanner, App Vault, and Settings areas of the MIUI interface, thus providing a seamless experience. Sadly, those using Xiaomi handsets with stock Android can only wait for the service to reach them as well.
All in all, this is an excellent move by Xiaomi but remains to see what will happen in the future. Mi Pay's main competitors in India are PayU and WhatsApp Pay, but the local market is currently growing at an impressive rate, so it should be room for everyone.