Vol: 7, Issue: 4 2017

Page: 107-124

An In-Depth Analysis of the Leveraging of the 2016 Indian Demonetisation - Paytm Establishing itself as a Dominant Player in the Digital Payment Industry

Aditya Gupta

There is a recent increase in the smartphone penetration in the Indian market. According to Analysis firm Canalys1, India is now the World’s second-largest smartphone market, overtaking the USA, second only to China. This is a massive paradigm shift which shows how fast Indians are adopting new technology. In November 2016, India experienced demonization where all 500 and 1000 rupees notes were no longer an accepted form of currency. This was done to curb the inflow of fake currency from various sources. But this also caused a big shortage of cash in the following days. People had to look for other means for their daily transaction and the solution came in the form of Mobile payment systems. Mobile wallets are apps that can be used to pay and receive money, after an initial amount is added to them. There were many players in this market, growing slowly. But demonetisation forced a lot more people to go forward and adopt the various options available in the economy. These ranged from Paytm, Free charge to phone brand solutions like Apple Pay. Notably, the biggest market capitalisation was of Paytm, which will act as the subject of this entire research.