PayPal is to wind down its domestic payments business in India after failing to make a significant dent in a fiercely competitive market.
PayPal first entered the Indian domestic scene four years ago and currently operates as a payment option for over 300,000 merchants in the vast territory.
“From 1 April 2021, we will focus all our attention on enabling more international sales for Indian businesses, and shift focus away from our domestic products in India,” the company says. “This means we will no longer offer domestic payment services within India from 1 April.”
The Indian mobile payments market is one of the most hotly contested in the world, with Big Tech giants like Facebook, Google, Amazon and TenCent battling it out for market share with a host of local players, including PhonePE and PayTM.
News of PayPal's retreat comes as the company reports record results driven by new products, including cryptocurrency payments and buy now, pay later services. With the global pandemic forcing a shift to e-commerce, PayPal grew its total payment volume by a third to $936 billion and reported a 22% uptick in net revenues to $21.45 billion.
In other news, PayPal has received a civil investigative demand (CID) from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over alleged 'unauthorized fund transfers and collections processes' by its P2P app Venmo. The probe will require Venmo to hand over documents and financial transaction records to the consumer watchdog.