Amazon May Turn Amazon Pay Into Standalone App in India

Three sources with knowledge of the matter have informed TechCrunch that Amazon is contemplating the conversion of its payment offerings in India into a standalone app

The company aims to increase Amazon Pay’s utilization in the country.

Amazon Pay is currently integrated into the company’s principal e-commerce application in India. It enables users to transfer money to individuals and merchants, pay bills, purchase insurance and travel tickets, invest in mutual funds and digital gold, and purchase travel tickets.

Two sources stated that the U.S. tech titan has been considering possibly decoupling its payment service from the e-commerce app for approximately one year and plans to implement the change shortly.

One source at Amazon stated that certain executives think Amazon Pay is not being given the necessary attention on the e-commerce app. They also suggested that a distinct app with a singular focus could assist the payments platform in gaining a broader presence in the country.

The sources requested anonymity due to the ongoing and confidential nature of the discussions. They warned that facing numerous other obstacles in India, Amazon may modify its plans and ultimately abandon the concept.

The news was described as speculation by an Amazon spokesperson, who declined to respond.

Amazon Pay is the sixth most popular app on the Unified Payments Interface, the most common online transaction method in India. According to official data, Amazon Pay processed approximately 72.4 million transactions in July, representing approximately 0.5% of all network transactions. In contrast, Google Pay processed 5.3 billion transactions, while Walmart’s PhonePe processed 6.9 billion.

Amazon is not the only company considering comparable alternatives in India, where superapp strategies modelled after those employed in China have not been particularly successful. Two years after separating from PhonePe, Flipkart, its primary Indian competitor, consolidated its fintech offerings into a single vertical late last month.