Paytm's bigger opportunity lies outside..fintech?

Random thoughts

A lot has been happening at Paytm - apart from business impact due to RBI regulation to restructuring (2 prominent CBOs / earlier CEO of PPBL have quit).

But that’s regular business. The bigger opportunity is this👇🏼.

Paytm is one of the few desi apps which has not just great daily usage, but also better UX (and design philosophy) than most of them.

Unlike others like Swiggy which are mainly centered around 1 major use-case (food delivery), Paytm caters to many use-cases - which makes it easier for users to relate it with more non-transactional usecases.

The bigger opportunity for Paytm is in going beyond fintech and transactional opportunities. Let me explain in simpler steps.

• India is changing. In the next 5 years, Indian consumers will be using a lot of AI products and services.

• Most consumer tech companies struggle to get distribution (read my lessons from shutting down 2 consumer products)

• Paytm has distribution…so logically speaking, why not rent-it-out to developers, instead of doing it all on its own (just like play store/app store)?

• Well. the earlier attempt to launch an app store was a massive failure (any idea how IndusOS is doing?).

Currently, Paytm is underplaying its distribution powers (ONDC foray is..frankly speaking very risky to be put under the main brand umbrella as ONDC nodes aren’t that well-oiled to promise a predictable customer experience).

So what’s the NextBigWhat for Paytm now?

Use your distribution and launch non-fintech products (think at the intersection of India and Gen AI opportunity).

A huge opportunity awaits and if not for Paytm, somebody will surely do this - and create a massively high-margin business.

But..isn’t Paytm a Fintech company? Well, Spotify is getting into devops tool, MS is launching copilots..GenAI offers opportunity to expand customer scope and frankly. Paytm (+ VSS) needs to get back to its startup roots and regain the consumer love.

What's your take?