Digital payments giant PhonePe has officially launched its Smart Speaker for reliable and convenient payment tracking at stores. The Smart Speaker has been launched in eight cities, and over 100,000 devices are already being used by PhonePe merchant partners, as per a statement.
The device provides payment notifications in 11 Indian languages, comes with up to four days of battery life, doorstep installation at just Rs 50 as an initial set-up cost and a low monthly rental of Rs 50 per month, the firm added.
Paytm was the first fintech company to launch its Soundbox in 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic. Following that, BharatPe launched its speaker device in February and claims to have onboarded 300,000 merchant partners.
Moneycontrol had reported earlier that Paytm's Soundbox, which announces receipt of payments for shopkeepers, is seeing tough competition from rival PhonePe.
The complaint dated July 29 identified three Paytm employees who are allegedly in the video, one of them a former PhonePe employee, the report added.
Paytm said it has suspended the three employees, pending investigations. The company said the issue is between PhonePe and its former employee.
"We do not tolerate any act of misconduct and always stand by the highest standards of work ethics. Paytm has been the pioneer of QR code payments in the country and takes great pride in significantly contributing to the growth of India’s digital ecosystem," the spokesperson told Moneycontrol.
According to a report by Macquarie, Paytm is likely to see a hit of Rs 400 crore on revenues and Rs 500 crore on the company's EBITDA if it makes rentals zero on all of its sound devices for merchants. The impact amounts to eight percent on revenues and 20 percent on EBITDA for the previous financial year of FY22, the report added.
