PhonePe, the leading fintech app has emerged to be the largest platform for buying ‘digital gold’. It has covered over 35 percent market share. So far, customers from over 18,500 pin codes across India have bought gold on PhonePe, mainly from small towns and cities.
At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and the stringent lockdown followed by that, digital payment applications like Amazon Pay, Google Pay, PhonePe, and Alibaba-backed Paytm has grown in their business. As the ‘digital gold’ is becoming more popular and familiar, the payment apps are competing with each other for the biggest share of the new market.
To convince the customer who bought gold on an installment basis across the country, especially in small towns and cities, the payment apps are giving lucrative offers. They are helping out in delivering gold products on time for marriages or festivals. EY India partner Ankur Pahwa said that digital gold provides safety, security, and flexibility to invest as little or much as per the need or desire of the customer. Along with this, the payment apps provide options to convert it to physical gold post-investment period.
PhonePe had introduced the gold category in their app in December 2017. It recently introduced a new feature, which acts as a reminder to help customers to build the habit of purchasing gold every month. It also added a milestone feature to motivate their customers and help them to achieve their saving goals by investing regularly. PhonePe CEO, Sameer Nigam said that they want to make it easier for customers to buy gold just like buying from the offline market and get it delivered. Other than PhonePe, people use other digital payment apps like Amazon Pay, Google Pay, and Paytm to buy digital gold.
Amazon spokesperson commented that safe gold makes saving in gold more convenient and safer and they had an amazing roadmap of product features which includes delivery and exchange of gold. Google Pay has come up with the digital gold category in 2019. Under this, customers can buy 99.99 percent 24 karat gold within the app, which is backed by MMTC-PAMP India. However, Paytm claimed that over 73 million people have bought gold from their platform out of which 40 percent belong from small towns and cities.
