Paytm Debuts Card Soundbox for Mobile and Card Payments

Indian eCommerce and payments firm Paytm debuted a new payment acceptance tool for merchants.

Card Soundbox lets merchants accept mobile and card payments using the company’s Soundbox with “tap and pay” capabilities, according to a Monday (Sept. 4) company blog post.

“We have found that merchants and consumers need card acceptance as simply as mobile payments with Paytm QR Code,” Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said in the post. “The launch of Card Soundbox will go a long way in merging the two requirements of merchants — mobile payments and card payments.”

The launch comes as India continues to make a name for itself as a center for payments innovation and digital-first shopping.

The PYMNTS report “2023 Global Digital Shopping Index: India Edition” showed that the country makes up 46% of the world’s real-time payments, with consumers making more digital transactions than any other nation.

In addition, 55% of consumers in India paid for their most recent digital retail purchase with Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the country’s instant payment system.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS’ intelligence found that consumers used digital wallets to pay for 55% of retail purchases in India.

“As one might expect, given India’s trailblazing nature, local consumers use more digital shopping features than their counterparts in the United States or the United Kingdom,” the report said.

That research found that consumers in India value a range of payment method choices, with 89% of merchants offering consumers payment method options. And that demand for payment choices has helped increase Paytm’s payment business revenue by 31% year over year, the company said in July.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported Monday that Sharma is considering increasing his stake in the company weeks after becoming its largest shareholder.

“Paytm is truly an Indian company,” he said, per the report. “It is a milestone that I’m able to acquire more stake in my company.”

Last month, Sharma bought a 10.3% stake worth $628 million in the company from Antfin, an arm of China’s Ant Group.

“Antfin has not indicated that they want to sell [a further] stake at the moment, but if they do, I will jump at any opportunity to buy more equity in Paytm,” Sharma added in the Monday Reuters report.