MobiKwik launches lighter Android app: Are mobile wallets finally gaining traction?

MobiKwik, the third largest mobile wallet in India, has an new lite Android app. The size is now reduced to 5MB and the company claims it to be the lightest mobile wallet app in the country. “In addition to the new app launch, we aim to make our mobile wallet the gateway for Indian masses to access financial services such as insurance, credit and loans. This will create more stickiness for the users towards Mobikwik and will help increase per user transactions. Our vision is to have users pay, invest, borrow and save all using MobiKwik.” said Upasana Taku, co-founder, MobiKwik. The aim was to make it easy to use even for those with 2G connection or older devices with limited RAM so that users in smaller towns can also use it. It lets you pay for utilities, bus bookings, and so on. You can also access offers and locate nearby stores for offline payment. The ‘Offers’ section has also been redesigned to make it more relevant. There is no denying that e-payments and mobile wallets are gaining popularity among youth, but the growth has been rather slow. There have been consistent efforts for years now . Remember Nokia Money , OboPay, ZipCash? However, the equations have changed over the last couple of years. You cannot single out a reason responsible for this change. The deeper penetration of smartphones, 3G services, and promising 4G can be called some factors that have helped with the change. The booming e-commerce sector and other service further helped give a push. Services like Uber have put PayTM at the forefront, raising awareness that payments via mobile wallets can be convenient and hassle-free. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also started showing positive signs at making India a cashless economy. In March, the Union Cabinet started implementing measures such as withdrawal of surcharge, service charge or convenience fee on card and other digital transactions. The  India Mobile Wallet Market Opportunities and Forecast, 2020, a report by TechSci Research predicts that mobile wallets markets will reach $6.6 billion by 2020. “A large number of banking, financial services and insurance, and telecom companies have entered into the mobile wallet market in India. Tier I cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, etc., have been the early users of mobile wallet market for shopping, money transfer, mobile recharge and payments, etc. The mobile wallet trend is gaining momentum in Tier II cities such as Jaipur, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Indore, Patna, etc., as well on account of rising smartphone and mobile internet penetration rates”, Karan Chechi, Research Director with TechSci Research, a research based global management consulting firm had said. Companies have started investing in mobile wallets. Mobikwik raised around $30 million, Alibaba Group has invested in One97 Communications that owns Paytm wallet and Sequoia Capital has invested in Citrus Payment Solutions. We also saw Snapdeal acquire Freecharge . And, more and more services are open towards accepting mobile money.