Starting with the U.S market, Amazon Pay is implementing strategies to get the first priority in the local city stores and gas stations. Aggressively moving toward replacing Apple Pay by itself in the physical market as well as the digital market.
Amazon pay service started in 2007. It is based on the consumer databases of Amazon.com and focuses on giving users the option to pay with their Amazon accounts on their platform & others as well.
The recent news is, Amazon India has increased the investment by Rs 220 crores into Amazon Pay. Making its total investment to Rs 1692 crores. Amazon Pay also acquired Tapzo, an all-in-one app which aggregates up to 40 apps in one place. This will enable Amazon users to make transactions across platforms and businesses directly using Amazon Pay as the payment platform. Amazon India also introduced the service of a door-step cash pick up to upload money into the Amazon Pay wallet which is a unique service.
Cashfree Adds Amazon Pay
In India, a payments company CashFree has added Amazon Pay as a payment option for its merchants and vendors. It claims to be the first payment gateway to introduce such an option for its customers. CashFree claims to have 5000 online and offline customers. CashFree was a 2015 startup by IIIT Hyderabad graduate Akash Sinha and IIT Kharagpur graduate Reeju Datta. It has Paypal and Y Combinator as its investors. Amazon Pay was launched in 2007 in the US but received approval by RBI to launch in 2017, in India.
One More In Indian Digital Economy
India’s government has ambitious plans for the country’s digital economy. The country has embarked on a promising Digital India initiative that encompasses everything from broadband “highways” to e-governance to digital literacy. There are also plans to establish 100 “smart cities” across India. Doing this in collaboration with public agencies and private companies, which looks promising for India’s rampantly growing digital market.
Reserve Bank of India ’s recent move of providing a license to 11 companies to set up payment banks -Is the start of a dynamic digital shift in the economy. Just as digital payments in China leapfrogged to over $5 trillion in the past four years. this is India’s Biggest moment to facilitate the interoperable and linked payment system to evolve, in order to become a global player in the digital economy.
