Today's Cancelled Trains
This is a big deal for Paytm which got an approval from the Reserve Bank of India last year to float a semi-closed wallet. Over the next six months, the Noida-based company is looking at 25,000+ tickets in a day using Paytm wallet on IRCTC platform.
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will now offer Paytm wallet as an option to pay for train tickets online. Through this partnership, Paytm will be able to expand its reach to Tier II and Tier III markets where trains form the primary mode of long distance travel and IRCTC the default train booking platform.
IRCTC will continue offering other modes of payment along with the Paytm wallet but it might just be a convenient option for ticket bookers who know the infamous unreliability of the IRCTC platform. Also, IRCTC claims to process over 180 million transactions every year. Paytm, on the other hand, claims to have over 60 million wallet users.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm claimed that Paytm was the biggest consumer transacting platform, followed by the IRCTC. Paytm also claimed to have surpassed the volume of IRCTC transactions in November last year.
Paytm launched a semi closed wallet in January last year, almost 6 months after receiving a semi-closed prepaid wallet license, and five months after Mobikwik launched theirs. The closed wallet could only be used to purchase services provided on Paytm, and not to purchase third party goods and services.
In February this year, Paytm received a huge infusion ($575 million) of funds from Alibaba Group’s affiliate company Ant Financial Services, which picked up a 30% stake in the company. Paytm was to use the funds to grow its mobile payment ecosystem, and on commerce user base acquisition. Late last year, online cab service Uber partnered with Paytm to enable users make use of Paytm’s prepaid wallet to pay for their tax rides.
IRCTC, in a debilitating move last week, introduced new rules which would slow down ticket booking for regular customers and agents. In March, it also implemented a new rule, that would allow only one ticket per user in one login session. The restrictions will be in place between the peak hours of 8am to 12pm, during which time users will be logged out automatically after making a single e-ticket booking.
It did, however, bring some joy to its users by introducing an EMI for train tickets last year and making available Pizza Hut and KFC meals along with Dominos Pizza to its travelers to their berths earlier this year.
At present, it does more than 60 million orders of various digital and physical goods every month. When asked about the number of wallet holders currently using it for booking train ticket, Vijay added, “We have just launched and it is early days yet. Over the coming month, we will launch multiple user communication initiatives to drive awareness of this feature.”
Paytm has been coming up with a string of updates. Last week, it joined in the hyper-local game by starting grocery delivery in Bangalore.
Most recently, Paytm came with the Seller App with a Zero Commission model. What this means is that sellers on the platform don’t need to give a commission to Paytm on sales. The move seems to be a game-changing deal for Paytm, and other marketplaces like Flipkart and Snapdeal will face the heat on the merchant acquisition front.
The partnership will also drive wallet users in tier II & III cities where plastic card adoption is not encouraging. “IRCTC is already recognised and trusted across the length and breadth of the country. This partnership will provide an additional use case to new/existing users across India to use Paytm wallet for their convenience,” stated Vijay.
Paytm-IRCTC partnership is a win-win deal for both parties. While IRCTC processes 180 million transactions every year, Paytm has a strong base of 60 million wallet users who can use its wallet instead of using credit/debit card details.
Prior to Paytm, telecom major Vodafone underwent strategic partnership with IRCTC to facilitate online booking of railway tickets through mobile phones with Vodafone M-Pesa as a payment option.
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