Audio Becomes Part of Fintech Innovation

Why ‘Audio’ Became The Game Changer In the Adoption of India’s Digital Payment Tech Stack

An internet-connected sound box changed the way online payments are done in India…

After it was introduced in 2016, India’s UPI (Unified Payments Interface) has created a revolution to by helping unconnected citizens integrate into the digital economy and removing corruption.

UPI now has 260 million users in the country of 1.4 billion people, helping people from small shopkeepers to large retail stores.

However there was a practical issue.

Even for small shopkeepers like a vegetable vendor, there could be a lot of transactions.

Every time a customer paid online, they will need to go make a phone call to confirm that the payment had been received. Or use their family’s only smartphone.

The customers, often in a rush, would get impatient.

The vendor then has to spend more time attending to them than he had back when he accepted only cash, resulting in lost productivity and loss in revenue.

In 2019, Paytm, India’s largest fintech company, introduced internet-connected sound boxes that read out payment confirmation messages in different languages.

Sound boxes have become a game-changer for small businesses in India that had previously relied on cash or phone calls to verify online payments.

They make transactions faster, easier, and more trustworthy for both merchants and customers.

Sound boxes have encouraged customers to use UPI online payments which have grown exponentially, reaching over $1.2 trillion in value by Q3 of the 2023 financial year.

What do you think of this local and practical innovation in payments?

#fintech #digitaltransformation #innovation

Related Posts

Charlie Munger Edition

"Those who keep learning, will keep rising in life. I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines.” 

Google’s Gemini AI: Redefining Excellence in Multimodal Computing

Gemini, Google's secret AI project, is now live and the AI landscape will never be the same again.

AI Takes Center Stage: AWS Redefines Cloud Computing at re:Invent 2023

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is reshaping the narrative of AI by carving out a future where cloud computing and AI are not just aligned—they're inseparable.

Decoding Success: The Crucial Role of Optionality in Strategy

Optionality is one of the least understood but yet one of the most powerful strategic levers that you can create for yourself and your organization.

Microsoft Dominates AI Landscape with Ignite 2023 Unveilings

Microsoft's announcements during Ignite yesterday indicate that it is now the 800 pound gorilla in the AI business.

HEM by Vectara: Rating AI Hallucinations for Reliable Benchmarking

Scroll to Top