Micromax is betting huge on the services business by integrating its mobile wallet solution — Udio — into its smartphones from this month. The company's co-founder Vikas Jain expects to have 15 million customers on its mobile wallet platform within the year, the Economic Times reported.
In order to improve cashless transaction experiences, Micromax has partnered with Visa, which enables mobile payments through QR codes and PIN at retail stores, and TranServ, which powers the mobile wallet platform. Micromax had partnered with TranServ last December ahead of the launch of Udio in January this year.
"Payment is very critical to the overall service strategy for Micromax... Almost all the new smartphone products will have this wallet natively integrated in them. Existing users of Micromax smartphones will also get this upgrade," Jain told PTI. "Visa brings together the merchant ecosystem and TranServ takes care of the technical aspect, while Micromax already has strong service ecosystem and user base in place to use this service."
The Udio mobile wallet will not reportedly be a separate app for users like Paytm, Freecharge or Mobiwik. It is expected to be integrated with Around YU, a platform launched by Micromax's YU Televentures for all services in healthcare, taxi booking, e-commerce, food ordering and more. Udio will be activated automatically when a user creates an account on Around YU, and payments for services on the platform will be deducted from the wallet.
Mobile payment services such as Paytm, Oxigen, Mobikwik and Freecharge have established a firm foothold in the Indian market, and Micromax will have to break through some tough barriers to reach its customers. However, the benefit of having its own platform on its own devices can make this journey less tiring.
The company also plans to offer deals on Around YU services for customers to use its mobile wallet, which will attract more users, ET reported.
Micromax said it would launch new phones with the Udio mobile wallet app later this month, and also a physical Udio card for making payments at more than 100,000 mVisa enabled stores and online transactions. Existing Micromax customers will receive a software update in the next two months to enable Around YU service and Udio mobile wallet on smartphones. Jain also said the company might roll out Udio in countries like Russia this year.
Micromax closed 2015-16 revenues at $2 billion and it is expecting to grow 30-40 percent this year, Hindustan Times reported.
