Paytm Ready to Take On WhatsApp Fully

It wasn’t so long ago when it was revealed that WhatsApp was looking to bring mobile payments service to India. A noteworthy idea in and of itself, and one that likely left mobile payments firms in India concerned. Paytm, the leader in Indian mobile payments, likely experienced a share of that concern itself, possibly in the form of profuse sweating or vivid night terrors. But Paytm isn’t taking this development lying down; it’s responding, and in a big way.

Where WhatsApp is a social platform that’s planning to add mobile payments services, Paytm’s plan is the exact same thing in reverse: a mobile payments services provider that’s planning to add a complete social platform. A wide range of services will be on hand here, including games, direct person-to-person communications, and various other points of mobile content.

The new update that brings these tools is set to go live in a beta version this month, and that won’t be the end of it. While the earliest version will supply many tools similar to those offered by WhatsApp, future versions are set to step up the game. Paytm is said to be using China’s WeChat as a model here, which may or may not be worthwhile given that WeChat Pay is second to Alipay by a substantial margin.

Given that Paytm recently established a joint venture with AGTech Media, an Alibaba affiliate, maybe it’s looking to take more out of Alipay’s book than we might expect. Plus, given that Alibaba is currently Paytm’s largest shareholder, there could be some independent development going on here that might find its way back to Alipay at some point. Alibaba has actually tried to add social features to Alipay previously, a point that didn’t take. Successful features in Paytm could be eventually migrated to Alipay.

Still, it’s not a bad idea. Instead of just ceding ground to WhatsApp, Paytm is actively working to hold its market in place with new features. Whether or not Paytm users really want social access or not isn’t clear, but it’s a good plan all the same. Whether or not those successful Paytm features can comfortably make a migration into Alipay, meanwhile, is a whole other matter that may or may not even be tried.