OnePlus Pay may soon come to India to compete with Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm

March 24, 2020, was when OnePlus Pay came into existence in China, but the company promised that it’d launch its payments service in other parts of the world in the coming years, including India and the USA. And while OnePlus has since then been tight-lipped about when exactly it’ll launch the service in India and the USA, it appears that the Shenzhen-based tech firm is ready to enter the Indian market to compete with the likes of Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm.

As first spotted by Indian tipster Mukul Sharma, OnePlus recently filed the trademark for OnePlus Pay in India, suggesting that the company has already laid the groundwork and is now taking necessary steps to launch the service in the country. However, the company has made no announcement regarding the launch date yet, leaving us in the dark about when the service will be launched. On the bright side, however, since the company has filed the trademark for its payment service in the country, we’re willing to bet that it’ll go live sooner rather than later.

For those unaware, OnePlus Pay is a mobile and NFC-based payments service, similar to Google Pay, Samsung Pay. It’ll allow users to make online payments and offline purchases without going through the pain of sharing their card numbers and other details with the merchant.

The Shenzhen tech company will face fierce competition from big players like Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, who already have a strong foothold on the Indian market. Luckily for OnePlus, India is a country that beat the USA and China in digital transactions in 2020 — a total of 25.5 billion real-time payment transactions were processed in India last year, which is followed by 15.7 billion in China, 6 billion in South Korea. And if that’s not enough, experts believe volume shares for instant payments and other electronic payments are likely to grow to 37.1 percent and 34.6 percent respectively in the country. Needless to say, there is an enormous opportunity for OnePlus to make its payment service a hit in India.

It’s quite likely that the OnePlus Pay will debut on premium OnePlus handsets, but it’ll be interesting to see whether the company makes its service available for other NFC-supported smartphones. Meanwhile, you can comment below if you’re excited to use the OnePlus wallet app in India.