Paytm makes offline foray, teams up with Cafe Coffee Day, Domino's

New Delhi - Paytm’s mobile wallet will soon be accepted at quick service restaurants (QSRs), including Domino’s and Cafe Coffee Day, as the Alibaba-backed company forays into the offline retail space in the next two months. At present, Paytm offers and recharge services for DTH (direct-to-home) and mobile phone services as well as mobile wallet services for online transactions on Uber, Bookmyshow, eBay and IRCTC. A mobile wallet is a prepaid payment instrument which allows customers to digitally store money in a secure virtual wallet and use it to pay bills and other services. [caption id=“attachment_1299487” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] “We are now foraying into the offline space. We have partnered various QSRs covering 7,000-10,000 outlets in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad,” Paytm vice-president (business) Amit Lakhotia told PTI. The integration is on and the service should be available by mid-June, he said adding that some of the restaurant partners include names like Domino’s and Cafe Coffee Day. Recently, Paytm had forayed into the e-commerce space putting itself in direct competition with giants like Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal. “Mobile wallet usage is definitely growing in the country. On our platform alone, about 66 million people are using the wallet services and the number will cross 100 million much before the year ends,” Lakhotia said. By going offline, Paytm will offer customers the choice to pay through a secure and reliable platform, he added. Paytm expects revenue run rate to more than double to $4 billion (Rs 25,417 crore) by year-end from $1.5 billion now. Revenue run rate is a term used in online retailing to indicate total sales value of merchandise sold through the marketplace over a certain time-frame. In February, Alibaba acquired a 25 per cent stake in One97 Communications, the parent of mobile commerce firm Paytm. PTI