In less than 3 years since Xiaomi launched payment and loan applications in the Indian market which is internationally very important for the company, it has quietly taken down the financial services in India. This withdrawal from the Indian market comes at a time when analysts estimate the Indian fintech space to be a $1 trillion opportunity.
If one were to search for the Mi Pay and Mi Credit apps on the Google Play Store in India or Xiaomi’s own app store, you’d have no luck. At one point of time, the company was pushing these apps so hard that they came pre-installed on all new devices and couldn’t be deleted even if you wanted.
NPCI, the industry body that operates and maintains the UPI infrastructure in the country has stopped listing Mi Pay among the approved UPI apps, and this means that existing users will no longer be able to carry out UPI transactions in India using the NPCI’s network. This sudden shutdown of the financial services division certainly comes as a setback for the company in India, where Xiaomi continues to remain at the top of the leaderboard for the number of smartphones shipper, quarter after quarter.
In March 2019, Xiaomi launched Mi Pay in India. Executives at the company claimed that the app had more than 20 million registered users at the time. The company later in the year introduced Mi Credit, an app that provided customers with low-interest loans for sums ranging from $70 to $1,400. It swiftly approved loans for customers through partners after evaluating their creditworthiness by looking at transaction data and other facts in users’ messages and call logs.
While it is presenting not very clear exactly why the company decided to take this step, but the decision is consistent with the central bank of India’s proposal for stringent rules governing lending in India, including requirements for what information lenders can access on a customer’s phone and broader disclosures about the terms of their credit agreement.
