BT Poll: UPI shines on India's digital payments map

As part of the magazine's latest edition: 'The UPI Juggernaut', Business Today conducted a social media poll to understand the acceptance of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platforms across India.

As per the findings, people prefer to use Paytm, Google Pay, PhonePe, Bharat Pay, and other UPI apps over card-based payments or traditional cash payments.

Here are the findings -

Poll 1: What is your preferred mode of daily payments?

Out of the total number of 360 voters who participated in Business Today's social media poll, approx. 75 per cent of them prefer to use UPI platforms over other digital modes of payment. Though, cash payments continue to account for a sizeable share of transactions in the country as 13.6 per cent of the voters have chosen this option.

Further, 9.55 per cent of the voters use credit cards, and only 3.3 per cent use debit cards.

A majority of Twitter users have opted for UPI payment with 77 per cent of them choosing this option followed by 14.8 per cent people going for cash payments and 6.6 per cent and 1.6 per cent opting for credit cards and debit cards, respectively.

A similar trend could be seen among the LinkedIn users, as out of the total 175 voters, 71 per cent have opted for UPI, while an equivalent number of voters, that is 11 per cent have opted for cash and credit cards options and only 6 per cent have opted for the debit card option.

Further, 77 per cent of Instagram users, prefer to use UPI, while 14.8 per cent of the users still use cash as their primary mode of payment. In terms of the usage of plastic cards, 6.6 per cent of the users prefer Credit cards while only 1.6 per cent of the users prefer Debit cards.

The trends around instant payment systems are no different on Telegram than LinkedIn. 71 per cent of the users prefer the UPI apps such as Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm, etc. Further, 14 per cent of the respondents use cash and the same proportion of people use credit cards. Here as well, the debit card seems to be the least popular among the users with only 4 per cent of them opting for that option.

Poll 2: What amount of payments do you use UPI apps for?

People usually prefer UPI apps to process smaller transactions up to Rs 500. But, as per the polls, the users are increasingly relying on these apps to make transactions of the larger value of Rs 5,000 and more.

More than 50 per cent of the total number of voters are using the UPI apps for making transactions below Rs 500. Though, a sizeable proportion of the voters, that is 13.35 per cent are also making transactions worth Rs 5,000 and more via UPI.

Further, 19.5 per cent of the voters process UPI transactions worth Rs 500-1,500, and 15.1 per cent make transactions worth Rs 1,500-5,000 via UPI.

A majority of Twitter users (55.2 per cent), prefer the UPI apps for transactions worth below Rs 500.

Though, surprisingly, a proportionate amount of people, that is, 22.4 per cent are using the UPI apps for transactions above Rs 5,000.

Out of the total 58 voters, 19 per cent use UPI apps for Rs 500-1,500 while only 3.4 per cent of the voters make UPI transactions between Rs 1,500 and 5,000.

Instagram respondents have echoed the same opinion as that of Twitter users. 48 per cent of the total 91 voters use UPI apps for transactions below Rs 500 while only 14 per cent of the people do UPI transactions above Rs1,500.

While 24 per cent of the voters use UPI apps for transactions between Rs 500 to Rs1,500 - 24 per cent.

Out of the total number of 235 Linkedin voters, 55 per cent use UPI apps for lower transactions up to Rs 500 while only 9 per cent of them use these apps for transactions above Rs 5,000.

Further, an equivalent proportion of voters, that is 18 per cent of 74 voters have voted for transactions between Rs 500-1,500 and Rs 1,500-5,000.

Only 12 Telegram users have responded to the poll, but out of them approx. 50 per cent of the voters use UPI apps for transactions up to Rs 500 while 25 per cent of them do UPI transactions worth between Rs 1,500 and 5,000.

17 per cent of the Telegram voters use UPI apps for transactions between Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 and only 8 per cent of them do UPI transactions worth more than Rs 5,000.

Poll 3: Which app do you prefer the most to make UPI-based transactions?

The UPI ecosystem is a bit crowded with multiple apps being used for digital transactions. But a few of them including Paytm, Google Pay, Phonepe, and BHIM app seem to be popular among the users.

Out of them, Google Pay is a clear winner with 42.45 per cent of the votes while Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), a UPI app developed by the National Payment Corporation of India under the guidance of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) received an average vote of 6.95 per cent.

Out of the total 366 voters, 32.35 per cent people prefer Phonepe and 21.75 per cent have voted for Paytm.

Google Pay has emerged as the most favorable UPI app among Twitter users as 37.8 per cent have voted for it followed by Paytm which is being used by 27 per cent.

Out of the 74 voters, around 28 per cent of people prefer PhonePe while only 6.8 per cent of people use the BHIM app.  

Google Pay is the most favorable UPI app among the Telegram users as 46 per cent of the voters have opted for it. While Phonepe is in the second position with 38 per cent votes followed by Paytm which is being used by 23 per cent of the voters.

BHIM is the least favorable with only 7 per cent of the voters opting for it.

The voters on Instagram are mostly using Phonepe and Google Pay to process digital payments via UPI apps as the number of people using the above two apps are 36 per cent and 38 per cent respectively.

Further, 20 per cent of the 152 voters have opted for Paytm while only 6 per cent have chosen the BHIM app.

Google Pay continues to be the most favourable UPI app among LinkedIn users with 48 per cent of them voting for it while BHIM app is the least favourable with just 8 per cent of the users voting for it.

Further, out of the total 127 voters, 27 per cent have opted for Phonepe while only 17 per cent have voted for Paytm.

The BT social media polls, reaffirm the data reflecting the growing userbase for UPI in India's $80 billion remittances market.

While cash usage is still high accounting for 14.6 per cent of India's GDP as of 2020-21, UPI is fast becoming the preferred mode of payments in the country, as the total value of UPI transactions reached Rs 10.62 Lakh crore in July alone, as per the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).