M-Wallet set to touch Rs 275 lakh crore in terms of market value by 2022

The M-wallet industry in India is set to reach Rs 275 lakh crore in terms of market value by the financial year end of 2022. Despite the initial hesitation on the adoption of digital payments and mobile wallet systems, consumers have embraced the method as demonetisation pushed them to try and use newer technology. According to a recent study ’m-wallet: Scenario post-demonetisation’ conducted by Assocham and consulting from ‘RNCOS’, increased m-wallet transactions and the people using the technology will help the market grow about 211 percent between 2016 and 2022 as reported by The Economic Times. Other factors that are helping the market grow apart from the demonetisation include the reduced prices of mobile internet, cheap smartphones and the rise of 4G in the country. The study further details that the average wallet spending will increase from the current Rs 500-700 to about Rs 2,000-10,000. The increased usage of m-wallets will further increase the total amount of expenditure on wallets to 57 percent out of the total mobile wallet transactions by 22. Currently the total spending on mobile wallets accounts of 20 percent of the total mobile payments. It points out that the total number of m-wallet users was expected to hit 260 billion users by 2022 from the current 0.6 billion users. The explosive growth keeps in line with the fact that the amount of cash in m-wallets has increased by 1000 percent, and an average number of transactions have gone to 18 percent, up from just 3 percent. The amount of money transacted will reach Rs 460 billion, up from the current Rs 2.9 billion. Apart from the predictions, the study suggested that mobile wallets will soon offer instant loan for short term and further suggested that RBI should relax policies to allow cash withdrawals from wallets. One important thing the study pointed was that the biggest hindrance to the growth of Indian m-wallet market is the consumer mindset.