What’s the first thing you do after an Uber ride? Check the balance in your Paytm wallet. How about recharging your pre-paid connection or paying your DTH service provider? Chances are, you use Paytm.
The new ad campaign for “India’s largest mobile commerce platform” shows a brother gifting her sister Rs 2,100 after she ties a rakhi on him, an armyman recharging his ageing mother’s phone, a taxi driver asking for his payment… yes, yes, you have guessed it… they all use Paytm.
And now consider these facts. Ratan Tata, in March, had invested an undisclosed amount in the company. Earlier in January, they had raised $575 million from Ant Financial, a related company of Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Delhi-headquartered One97 Communications — which owns Paytm, that has an 80 million user base — is obviously a busy man. The 37-year-old –– whose motto is “whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right” –– took time off to field a few questions from t2 over email.
What was your vision for One97 when it started?
When I started One97 in 2001, mobile wasn’t that big. By that time I had learnt India is not a large online advertising market nor were there any payment platforms. So I wanted to drive telecom operator capabilities to distribute and charge consumers. Our vision was to be the largest content/digital goods distribution and monetisation company.
What was that one gamechanger moment for Paytm?
In 2012, our super-user-friendly service allowed 100k people to recharge in one day. That day we knew that something worthy had been done for a large number of Indian users. In those days, e-commerce companies were doing tens of thousands of orders only and they needed payment first (instead of cash on delivery). Such a large use of a commerce and payment platform was unprecedented in India.
What are your expectations from Bengal?
We want the Bengal government to allow us to take various utility and government payments on mobile. It will increase their revenue collection. We have seen that once the process is made easy, consumers pay bills on time. At present we don’t have many Bengal-centric utilities on Paytm. Also, we want Bengal to embrace mobile commerce, and various small- and medium-businesses to partner with Paytm’s marketplace. We can enable the entire country’s consumer base to buy their goods.
The recent Paytm TV ads involve people from all walks of life....
We have so many anecdotal cases shared by our users. Sometimes we even get surprised. In one of our official WhatsApp groups, one of our teammates wrote that an autorickshaw driver in Noida had asked him to pay through Paytm wallet instead of cash. We were very surprised that an autorickshaw driver knew about Paytm wallet and used it. Then we searched our social networks and identified in people’s online conversations all the scenarios that were shown in our ad. In fact, our ad is based on what our users told us about how they use Paytm.
Early on, young Indians were our brand ambassadors and now, even working professionals and senior citizens use Paytm. Our users come from across India, from jawans on the Pakistan border to people in the Northeast.
What kind of popularity does Paytm enjoy among the youth?
They form a significant portion of our 80 million user base, especially because we built the smartphone app-based business as early as in 2011. We have seen college students and those living in hostels to be the most active users. Also, we implemented new methods and the youth like to experiment and try out new things. We are sort of rebels who don’t like to live the same way our previous generations lived. :-)
Name: Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Born: June 7, 1978
From: A small town near Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh
Lives in: New Delhi
Designation: Founder and CEO of One97 Communications Ltd, which owns Paytm
Parents: His father retired as the principal of Agrasen Inter College in Harduaganj and his mother is a housewife
Education: BE in Electronics & Communication, Delhi College of Engineering (1998)
First company: Xs! Corporation, which offered web-guided services. He founded this with his friend while still in college
User base for Paytm is: 80 million
Failures are part of the game. Any crucial turning point?
Yep, when in 2010 we weren’t able to pull off an Indian IPO, it was very disheartening. Looking back, it’s also one of the good things that happened because we could launch a more impactful business of Paytm. Otherwise, as a listed company it would have been very tough to switch to a totally new business.
What prompted you to leave the US and return to India in 1999?
I was working for a US company and it was less satisfying to build something for Americans only. India was starting to have some Internet penetration, so I wanted to build something for Indian consumers using Internet technologies. It was tough and almost unrewarding in the early days. Now it’s reversed, India is at the very top in the mind of every global company, and we have a very good position in the home market.
You have, of course, met Jack Ma. But in 2011, when India wasn’t talking about Ma, you had heard him speak in Hong Kong. Did he move you?
Jack Ma is such an inspiring person. One can easily be enamoured by his energy and vision. When I heard him first, he was talking hundreds of billion dollars and hundreds of million users. I was so smitten by him and his company that I took trips to Hangzhou (Alibaba HQ) and met many of his team members. He showed the way for a really large commerce platform. I picked it and ported it on mobile for India. I am very happy that we are now partners.
Everybody is still talking about One97 raising $575 million from Ant Financial, a related company of Alibaba Group in January. How do you intend to make use of the funding?
We have such a large mission in front of us. Cost of consumer acquisition, cost of servicing millions of merchants and various infrastructures will take all this money. We hope to keep spending to sustain a long-term scalable platform. I am very happy that investors have faith in our team and capabilities. Our mission is pious and it will change the canvas of money transactions in India…. It will take three-five years to build. We need this kind of money.
So, how do you unwind?!
I love any high-adrenaline activity. I regularly go rafting, have gone bungee jumping and skydiving. I also drive a lot. It forces my attention on the road instead of thinking about work. Even music helps me relax. I usually drive a BMW and listen to music. U2 and Coldplay are my favourite bands. I also like Cuban jazz and the blues. And I mostly go to sleep listening to Western classical music.
And a usual day in your life….
Waking up to emails and Twitter. Planning key actions of the day. Spending time with my kid and dropping him to school. Meetings with office teammates in the first half. Meeting visitors or visiting business partners in the second half. No phone calls or text messages in the day. Product and business reviews are my focus. And then ending with some tweets, catching up on news and back home!
What does money mean to you today?
Money was never the driver or reason to be in business. I am so happy that today we are working on bringing half-a-billion Indians towards mainstream economy. We will do everything to make sure these people get their due and bridge the divide between the rich and poor. Also, by removing cash in transactions, we will help reduce corruption in India. That will, personally, be very gratifying.
Finally, how often do you use Paytm and for what?
My biggest use case is DTH recharge for my home. I also shop for a lot of stuff, especially stuff that’s not available in stores. I also use it to pay for taxi rides.
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Mathures Paul
I use Paytm for.... Tell t2@abp.in
