UXH Mixology #16: RBI says: Paytm bas karo 🙏🏻
In this edition: RBI comes down hard on Paytm, importance of UX Writing and Edge steals Chrome tabs
Bonjour!
What a week! If the Fintech world wasn’t wary of the RBI, after the events of last week, everyone is.
Dar ka mahaul hai…
📌Note: We have added a new section where we aggregate links to some interesting reads. Hope you find it helpful
🌏 Product & Design News:
RBI has lost its patience with Paytm Payments Bank
One news that has sent shockwaves across the Indian startup & fintech space this week, was RBI’s diktat against Paytm Payments Bank.
The RBI has barred Paytm Payments Bank from accepting deposits or top-ups in any of its key products—customer accounts, prepaid instruments, wallets, FASTags and National Common Mobility Card (NCMC), among others—after February 29, 2024 in the wake of “persistent non-compliances and material supervisory concerns”
The stock has tanked 36% in two days.
While some are terming RBI's steps as too stringent, the media is now digging for more information.
However, Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s (Founder, Paytm) goodwill among Indian Entrepreneurs came to his rescue, with most hoping he would come out stronger from this episode.
There’s no denying that Paytm has played a significant role in making India a digital nation (apart from Jio and Govt. push). Having said that, this doesn't absolve Paytm of its shortcomings.
The warnings were given aplenty, as far back as March 2022.
Here’s hoping Paytm does a course correction, fast, and complies with regulations. As a public company, that's hygiene 🙏
While Paytm, in its response, has said the impact of RBI’s measures is Rs 300-500cr on EBIDTA, only time will tell if Paytm can be back to its former glory.
Byju’s seeks $200 million in rights issue at 99% valuation cut
Well given how big the Paytm story is, this major development went under the radar: maybe people were already expecting it? But a valuation cut from $22bn to $200mn is bonkers. Quite a graph:
💡 Interesting Reads:
How a small copy change led to 17% growth in user engagement for Google’s Hotel Search
Came across this interesting post on LinkedIn by Sindhu Shivaprasad.
Again reinforcing why copy plays an important role in overall UX.
Microsoft stole my Chrome tabs, and it wants yours, too
Just when you thought Microsoft is doing oh so well (nearly became the most valuable company), Microsoft does something that brings back IE memories. Fascinating story, which was a bug. But fact is Microsoft is *actively* working on this.
Do you have similar case studies to share? Tell us here
🗞More reads
TikTok’s big pivot to shopping risks putting off users | Morning Brew
Amazon debuts ‘Rufus,’ an AI shopping assistant in its mobile app | Techcrunch
👉🏻PS: Have an interesting read to recommend to 6500+ readers? You can also recommend your article/video/case study too. Submit it here
📅 Events @ UXHack:
🔥 Now Live:
Weekend Hackathon #11
👉🏻 Product: ChatGPT
⏰ Deadline: 5th Feb 10AM IST
🏆 Win prizes worth Rs 5K
You can share your submission on social and tag us or upload at: uxhack.co/weekend/
TGIF Product & Design Quiz #42
Featuring this week: Byju's valuation cut, Google's competitor and Hacktivism
💼 Featured Jobs:
Design Jobs 🎨
Product Designer at Skyscanner | Barcelona
Product Designer at Upstox | Mumbai
Product Jobs 🅿️
Associate Product Manager at American Express | Gurugram
Senior Product Manager at Adobe | Bengaluru
🖥️ From Founders’ Desk:
A startup idea Nishith would love to subscribe to:
I think Fintech as a sector will always have some white spaces. If you are passionate and can manage the regulatory hurdles (pun intended), you can solve real problems for individuals and businesses.
Here’s a startup idea I would be happy to pay a monthly nominal fee for:
A real-time wealth tracker across all asset classes (investments and insurance)
Have you ever tried calculating your current wealth? I guess most of us can't put a number to it unless one has made efforts to track it.
I keep on exploring various apps in the market, that can help save my time in compiling my investments, insurance and expenses view.
The expenses view for me is now almost solved. I currently use Axios. I am also planning to try out Fold.Money, based on recommendations.
But when it comes to presenting a single view of my investments and insurance, that’s still a big white space I feel.
When I say investments, it should be across asset classes including Real estate (telling me current resale price, rental yield, annual appreciation rate), LIC & ULIP (the surrender value) and more
So, who’s building it?
And that’s all for the week.
We’ll see you next week, which we hope is a little less…. dramatic.
Phew!