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PayPal suspends services in Russia

Visa and Mastercard have also announced to suspend all operations in the country in the wake of Ukraine invasion…reports Asian Lite News

Payments company PayPal has announced that it is suspending its services in Russia in the wake of Ukraine invasion.

Ukraine’s vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov tweeted a letter from PayPal CEO Dan Schulman, confirming the company’s decision to shut down its operations in Russia.

“We received a letter from Dan Schulman, CEO PayPal. So now it’s official: PayPal shuts down its services in Russia citing Ukraine aggression. Thank you, PayPal for your supporting! Hope that soon you will open it in for Ukraine,” Fedorov said in a tweet.

“Under the current circumstances, we are suspending PayPal services in Russia,” Shulman says in the letter. “We are also doing all that we can to support our staff in the region during this deeply difficult time.”

Visa and Mastercard have also announced to suspend all operations in the country in the wake of Ukraine invasion.

Visa said that it will work with its clients and partners within Russia to cease all Visa transactions over the coming days.

Once complete, all transactions initiated with Visa cards issued in Russia will no longer work outside the country and any Visa card issued by financial institutions outside of Russia will no longer work within the Russian Federation, the company said late on Saturday.

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Lockdown fuels growth of E-commerce, OTT, gaming

E-commerce, OTT, gaming saw over 100% growth in 2020. 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

Advantage OTT, Gaming and e-commerce. Covid spread has fuelled the growth of tech sector. Amid the pandemic, online payments, indoor entertainment and gaming witnessed over 100 per cent growth in India last year, a new report said.

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 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 in drop in expenditure in ’20.

“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.