Paypal is going head to head with Paytm (who are backed by Alibaba) by launching domestic operations in India.

Anupam Pahuja is the managing director of Paypal India. He told that “India is transitioning away from our biggest competitor – cash – and our digital platform and technology has immense scope to enable this at scale”. It appears that India has huge potential for growth in the sector, and this is just the beginning.

Paypal surveyed 4000 consumers across the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, China, Hong Kong and India in 2017.

They found that around 57% of those surveyed preferred to pay in cash for their day to day purchases.  The reason for this is that many consumers:

• Find the initial setup of digital wallets to be difficult & complex
• Worry about the privacy of their personal data
• Do not understand how these new payment methods work

However, more and more people are now using cards and ewallets for their daily transactions due to the government's push to go cashless. The online payment industry is expected to be worth $500 billion in India by 2020. Paypal will attract retailers by allowing them to process global and local payments. It will give retailers access to paypals enormous worlwide customer base, totalling around 218 million. Paypal will also be able to grow their customer base by enabling Indian consumers to shop online using the platform at popular businesses around the country.