Rising smartphone sales in India boosts bitcoin wallet adoption

Golden Finance News: Since the Indian government launched the "demonetization order", digital currencies such as Bitcoin have become popular in the local market. And with the promotion of Bitcoin, the smartphone market has also grown rapidly.

The introduction of the demonetization order has made digital currencies such as Bitcoin and smartphones popular in India. Image source: Golden Finance

As the world's second most populous country, India has become very short of cash after the government introduced the demonetization order in November last year. It has been reported that 9 out of 10 ATMs in India are now empty. This situation has stimulated Indians to use cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to achieve asset preservation and normal living expenses, so the use of smartphones and Bitcoin wallets has become a necessity for Indians.

Research firm Gartner said the Indian government's policy of encouraging people to use digital currency for payment will trigger a surge in demand for smartphones.

“Users are willing to spend more to get smartphones with better features, rather than simply rushing for the lowest-priced model.”

The research report also shows that the rise of digital currency has brought new applications to smartphones. For example, by installing a mobile Bitcoin wallet on a smartphone and connecting to the Internet, Bitcoin payments or transactions can be made anytime and anywhere.

The rising demand for smartphones in India also provides an excellent promotion opportunity for Bitcoin wallet service providers, and some wallet providers have even launched exclusive mobile payment solutions, such as Android Pay or Apple Pay, to build an ecosystem around Bitcoin wallet services.

The transaction volume of a certain Bitcoin wallet PayTM increased by 250 percentage points. Image source: Golden Finance

The use of Bitcoin wallets has skyrocketed after the introduction of demonetization in India. FinTech platform PayTM, which operates mobile Bitcoin wallets, saw a 250 percent increase in transaction volume, rising to 435%. Bureau data shows that modern India is adding one million mobile Bitcoin wallet users every day.

Bipin Preet Singh, founder and CEO of mobile Bitcoin wallet provider MobiKwik, revealed:

“There may be few POS machines, but most users have smartphones. Installing a Bitcoin wallet to make digital currency payments has become a new payment method.”

As of 2016, smartphones accounted for 50% of all mobile phone sales in India, and this figure is expected to rise to 62% by 2018.

Anushul Gupta, research director at Gartner, added:

"With sales policies slowing down in the US, China and mature Western European mobile phone markets, India has the opportunity to become the second largest mobile phone market after China."