Xiaomi, the China-based smartphone manufacturer, which is currently dominating the Indian smartphone market, has launched its mobile payment solution in the country — Mi Pay. This makes India the first country outside the company’s home market to get the Mi Pay service.
While the Chinese version of Mi Pay uses Near Field Communication (NFC) to process payments, this isn’t the case in the Indian version. Mi Pay in India supports payments through leading credit and debit cards, internet banking, and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) which can supports QR code-based payments.
Xiaomi’s mobile payment service in India has been cleared by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for large group usage. The service allows users to pay bills, including phone bills, electricity bills, and water bills as well as do mobile and DTH recharges.
However, the service is currently in Beta stage and will be available to beta users in “soon.” The company has not revealed when the stable version will release. Those who are interested in using Mi Pay during beta stage can sign up for the same from here. As per the company, the advantage of Xiaomi with Mi Pay in India is the deep integration of the service with MIUI, company’s own mobile operating system based on Android.
It will be interesting to see how Xiaomi’s payment service fares in the Indian market as there are many online payments service providers trying to get a lead. Two of the biggest services include Google Pay and Paytm. Popular messaging app WhatsApp is also testing its own payment service in India.
However, it seems that finding an audience for Mi Pay will be comparatively easy for Xiaomi given that it currently dominates the Indian smartphone market and has millions of users.
(Source)
