UPI transactions surged to 9.3 billion in June 2023, driven by P2M, says Worldline report

The United Payments Interface (UPI) transactions in India surged by 62% in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period last year. The UPI transactions reached 9.3 billion in June 2023, up from 151 million in January 2018, primarily driven by the growth in Person-to-Merchant (P2M) transactions, a report by the global payments service provider Worldline revealed Tuesday.

Out of the total 51.91 billion UPI transactions conducted between January and June this year, 29.15 billion were P2M payments, accounting for approximately 56.1% of the total. In January 2022, P2M transactions accounted for 40.3% of all UPI transactions compared to 57.5% in June 2023, the Worldline’s report India Digital Payments Report for H1 2023’ said.

The remaining transactions, grew from 18.62 billion transactions in H1’22 to 22.75 billion in H1’23; a 22% increase. During the same period, the value of P2P transactions grew from ₹45.52 trillion to ₹63.99, a 41% increase.

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The P2M transactions are experiencing rapid growth, with a 119% increase compared to a 41% rise in P2P transaction volume in H1 2023, the report said. The removal of transaction fees for merchants contributed to the growth in P2M transactions, the report added.

“Beyond low fees, merchants are also looking for security, timely payments among other things and UPI delivers here. The other fact is that with the dominance of P2M transactions, UPI is going to become even more entrenched with the population and growth will continue at this rapid pace and the P2M percentage, at current trends, will likely reach 75% of all UPI transactions by 2025,” the report said.

"The key driver for this growth has been the widespread acceptance of UPI for both personal and payment transactions from the user/buyer standpoint, as well as high acceptance by merchants. Additionally, there has been greater penetration of UPI in rural India," the report added.

The report noted that three UPI apps -- PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm-- accounted for 95.68% of all transactions in terms of transaction volume, in June 2023, compared to 94.55% a year before. In terms of transaction value, the 3 accounted for 93.65% in June 2023 compared to 93.38% in June 2022.

The report further noted that online space, e-commerce, gaming, utilities, government and financial services amounted to more than 80% of the total transaction volume and contributed to more than 75% of the total transaction value.

Top 10 states and UT with the highest number of transactions at physical touch points in 2022 for Worldline India were Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Delhi, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, the report added.