Amazon Pay Balance Can Now Be Used for Mobile Recharges
If it wasn't already clear, Amazon
has big ambitions for its payments service, Amazon Pay. The company has
added the ability to make mobile recharges, one of the most common use
cases of any mobile wallet app, to its payments service in India.
At
present in beta stage, users can now recharge their phone numbers using
Amazon Pay, which also serves as a wallet service (also known as
'bucket'). Available on the Web as well as through Amazon India's app,
Amazon Pay lets people store money in the service and also supports all
the plastic cards and net banking option for payments. For now, it
doesn't support mobile recharges for phone numbers on Airtel network,
the website says.
The interest of Amazon in the payment space comes
at a time when several major local players have been cashing in on the
government's demonetization move. Amid demonetization, Paytm and MobiKwik, two large mobile wallet apps, reported skyrocketing growth in volume of transaction and new users.
The
only other international giant which has so far attempted to serve
Indians with their mobile payment solution is Samsung, which launched Samsung Pay
last year. The company has partnered with several mobile wallet apps
and banks to support their payments protocols on its service.
Going forward, Amazon Pay will also support UPI,
a source familiar with the matter said. But for now, it appears Amazon
is taking its time when it comes to new features roll-out.
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