Bengaluru: India has a $500+ Bn market for sharing credit and spending with family and friends. This entirely informal market has a vast digitization potential, and new-age apps such as Xare and Fampay, amongst others are at the forefront of bringing about this digitization.
Although the concept of sharing finances is integrated in our society, there exists a pool of funds which is currently untapped. This is essentially the portion of our credit card limit which remains unused and is available liquidity, but is not readily transferable to others who may need it. With the intent to use this remaining amount of limit, platforms are now coming up with offerings which essentially allows the user to share the actual credit amount.
The major growth driver for this market is mobile payments. India has now grown to become the second-largest mobile payments market in the world, with more than 250 Mn mobile payment users. India’s mobile payment growth story is driven by UPI, which grew to have >$500 Bn of disbursals in CY20, along with >20 Bn processed transactions.
India’s mobile payment revolution has come off the back of its 500+ Mn smartphone user base. And with this ongoing revolution, India’s digitally-savvy user base has a chance to leapfrog the challenges of low financial services penetration and finally tech-enabled financial services to all.