Paytm continues to bet big on Soundbox, launches new use cases

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

One 97 Communications Ltd., which operates the Paytm brand, on Monday announced the launch of two new variants of its Soundbox product to include more use cases such as music playback and portability. The two new variants are Paytm Music Soundbox, which doubles up as a Bluetooth speaker for merchants for music playback, and Paytm Pocket Soundbox, a portable version of the current payment acceptance device for cart vendors, delivery personnel and auto drivers. “There are possibly 1 crore (10 million) Soundboxes in the market, of which 85 lakhs (8.5 million) would have been deployed by Paytm till now.

We believe in the potential of this market and feel that there will be 4-5 crore Soundboxes deployed in the next 3-5 years. Paytm will be key in expanding the market,” said Bhavesh Gupta, president and chief operating officer, One 97 Communications, in a media briefing on Monday. “We have invested heavily to service these products and are confident about providing superior service (to our merchants) against competition,” he added.

The new Soundboxes will be offered to merchants at a subscription fee, just like the previous structure. “The commercials will change as we go deeper into different segments, explore more merchants and newer use cases. As a part of the pilots, merchants are listening to music for almost three hours on the new Soundbox,” said Ripunjai Gaur, chief business officer, offline payments, One 97 Communications.

As per the company's latest financial results for the quarter ending June 30, its merchant subscriptions (subscribing to Soundbox) have more than doubled to 79 lakh (7.9 million) over the last year. It had 38 lakh (3.8 million) Soundbox subscribers for the quarter ending June 30, 2022. “We, at Paytm,