Uber India today announced Unified Payments Interface (UPI) integration in partnership with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and banking partners Axis Bank and HDFC Bank. With this arrangement, riders now have the options to pay for their rides via Bhim app also besides making payments via PayTM, Credit/Debit cards or cash. This is an initiative by Uber for Government of India’s digital payment initiative.
As a first step, Uber offered its riders the option to use their existing UPI IDs to pay for their rides in July 2017. The second phase of Uber’s UPI integration is a truly comprehensive roll-out, that allows riders to even create UPI IDs using the Uber app and initiate their journey onto a digital payments led society. With over 9.4 million Uber trips a week in India this July, the potential for encouraging adoption of UPI across riders is immense as stated by Uber.
Equally significant will be the impact on the driver side. Through the steadfast adoption of BHIM over the next few weeks among its 285,000+ weekly active drivers, the move will additionally enable over 450,000 registered drivers on the Uber platform to experience the power of UPI.
According to Uber, this integration will have significant impact on the driver side. Through the steadfast adoption of BHIM over the next few weeks among its 285,000+ weekly active drivers, the move will additionally enable over 450,000 registered drivers on the Uber platform to experience the power of UPI.
Launching the integration, the Hon’ble Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology and Law & Justice, Government of India, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, said “India’s digital economy will become a $1trillion economy in the next five years. India’s digital payments economy alone will be bigger than $500 billion. Integration of Uber app with UPI-BHIM will boost the digital economy of India.”
Echoing this sentiment Mr. David Richter, SVP-Global Business, Uber said, “We are proud to be a partner in the government’s monumental mission to create a digital payments led society and thrilled to announce UPI integration, a significant collaborative step towards unlocking the potential of fintech innovations in accelerating the growth of the nation’s digital economy. Uber, like several other tech companies in India and around the world, depends on consumers being able to frequently make low value payments with minimal friction. UPI integration will bring millions of riders and driver partners into the digital payments ecosystem, offering them another secure and seamless payment interface and bolster the nation’s digital payment revolution.”
