According to a report by Reuters, PayPal, an American-based company that operates online payment systems globally, has decided to shut down its domestic payments operations within India.
In a statement, the company said, “From April 1, 2021 (beginning of the financial year 2021-22), we will focus all our attention on enabling more international sales for Indian businesses, and shift focus away from our domestic products in India.”
“This means we will no longer offer domestic payment services within India from 1 April,” it added.
The company said that it will instead divert resources towards the development of its cross-border payments business, which means foreign customers will still be able to use PayPal to pay Indian merchants.
PayPal will no longer be a method of payment for many Indian online booking services such as travel and ticketing, which it was earlier.
This move comes due to the heavy competition in India’s online payment gateway sector, with big players like Paytm and Google Pay holding a monopoly over the customers. Confirming this, a PayPal spokesperson said – “It made sense to us to do one thing right, which is our cross-border trade business, rather than to focus on multiple businesses; we can’t do everything here.”
The spokesperson commented on the company’s decision saying that, “India is a very crucial market for PayPal, and after a thorough analysis, we decided that we are best placed here to focus on enabling cross-border trades and exports for Indian businesses aiming to go global.