Mobile wallet player Mobikwik aims to generate a gross merchandise value of $2 billion, on the back of reaching 150 million users in about two years’ time, up five times from its present base. The Gurgaon-based company which competes with market leader Paytm, intends to achieve this target on the back of new users from tier 2, 3 and 4 tier cities that will begin using smartphones in due course.
Top executive at Mobikwik said that the company would partner with smartphone makers to pre-integrate the app as a default recharge service, and eventually payment platform, in devices, and feels that its lightness on the phone will encourage users to adopt the app over competition.
“By 2018, there will be 250-300 million data users, our goal is that at least 50% of them should be using Mobikwik if not more,” said Upasna Taku, Co-Founder of Mobikwik, that at present has about 32 million users.
“We want to double our user base year-on-year over the next two years, reaching a GMV of $2 billion and a retailer base of 500,000,” she added.
The company, which recently raised $50 million in fresh capital in its third round led by Japan’s GMO Payment Gateway and Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company MediaTek, believes that the wallet will be relevant two years from now, even when others like Paytm plan to move users in its wallet to payment services platform after it received its payment bank license.
The use case would still be there, even when consumers make transactions through models such as Unified Payments Interface (UPI) & Bharat Banking Payment Systems (BBPS).
“Two years from now, wallet will be the single app which you will use for all your financial transactions, financial history, to not just make payments, but also borrow money and get the best insurance deals – an alternative ecosystem to banking, which will be relevant for the un-banked people,” Taku said.
To reach the un-banked, MobiKwik will partner with mass market smartphone brands, on the lines of its recent deal with Xiaomi, which will make new data users on the Chinese smartphone brand automatic Mobikwik users. The app will allow all Xiaomi users to recharge their phones with one tap when they receive a low balance message for DTH or phone, without requiring a log in.
The company feels that the app will find acceptance in the remote areas of the country as well, because at 5 MB it’s the lightest among top 10 e-commerce apps and will work on low RAM phones as well as low latency networks – like 2G – giving it an edge over others.
The company will begin giving micro-credit to consumers after checking their transaction history, while it will immediately offer insurance plans to new users, besides enabling online and offline purchases.
Source: The Economic Times
