Ecomm, Gaming, OTT See 100% Growth in Covid Year

Amid the pandemic, online payments, indoor entertainment, and gaming witnessed over 100 per cent growth in India last year, a new report said on Tuesday.

As theatres and offline entertainment avenues remained shut, consumers turned to indoor entertainment. The OTT segment witnessed an incredible 144 per cent increase in the number of transactions and a 139 per cent increase in expenditure between 2019 and 2020, according to online payments solution provider PayU.

The pandemic gave a huge boost to online payments, seen in the 24 per cent increase in the number of transactions and 23 per cent increase in expenditure across the PayU platform, year on year. 

"PayU is committed to partnering with merchants to facilitate the adoption of digital infrastructure," said Hemang Dattani, Head- Data Intelligence, PayU.

Interestingly, during the festive season (October-December 2020), there was a 45 per cent spike in the number of online transactions vis-a-vis the same period in the previous year. 

The number of UPI transactions grew by 288 per cent and expenditure through UPI grew a phenomenal 331 per cent between 2019 and 2020.

The gaming segment saw a phenomenal 100 per cent increase in expenditure and a 154 per cent increase in average ticket size between the two years. 

"For gaming and entertainment, the number of transactions made at night increased by 34 per cent while the number of transactions made during the day decreased by 11 per cent in 2020 vs. 2019, an indication of the increased dependence on indoor entertainment while working from home," the findings showed.

Travel and hospitality were some of the most impacted sectors with an 86 per cent drop in the number of transactions and expenditure between pre and post-Covid quarters (January-March vs April-June 2020). 

Compared to 2019, there was a 46 per cent drop in the number of transactions and a 52 per cent drop in expenditure in 2020.

"Edtech emerged as a winner, with a 78 per cent increase in the number of transactions and a 44 per cent increase in expenditure," the report mentioned.