Money plays an integral part in our lives and affects how we live, relate, and see the world around us. The problem with money is that it is not easy to maintain, carry, and use in its conventional form.
If you have gold or silver, you cannot use them for exceedingly small transactions like getting a pack of noodles or paying for the metro ride. If you carry cash, you cannot carry too much of it if you need to pay for larger transactions. Both forms also have the added risk of being stolen or getting lost.
Bank accounts provide the convenience to store your money safely, but checks are passé, and net banking requires a stable & secure internet connection.
Credit and debit cards always carry the risk of being cloned and may carry a high transaction fee to boot. But as a pattern, you can see that we moved from gold to coins, then from currency notes to checks, and again from wire transfers to cards. It has always been a journey in search of more safety and convenience.
Every form of money, physical, fiat, or digital, is a step towards the same goal. Electronic wallets, eWallets, or peer-to-peer payment apps provide the ultimate form of security, storage, and convenience. A peer-to-peer payments app presents the user with an omnichannel payment solution to replace their physical wallets, multiple cards, and the need to access their bank accounts.
With the ewallet app development space opening up, many opportunities have opened up for entrepreneurs. P2P-payment apps can engage better with their customers, make transaction processing smooth, and add value using innovative features like spend analysis and financial investments.
Innovations in P2P-payments apps include bill reminders & payments, overseas or inland remittances, splitting bills among friends, and making regular investments. Like any financial tool or instrument, a peer-to-peer payments app must be robust, secure, and legally compliant, and above all, it helps users in cashless transactions.
Because of the reasons listed above, and many more not listed here, P2P payments app development is gaining currency, and if you are one of the few innovators who plan to launch one, then the professional team at Arka Softwares has got your back.
A P2P payment app, or an e-wallet app, permits its users to make transactions with any other user who has the same app installed. The other party can be their family members, friends, clients or service providers, employees, local shops, food stalls, small or large businesses, or any other third party.
Users can make payments to the other party using various payment gateways– using their registered mobile number, scanning a unique QR code, or manually entering their bank account details. These apps are secure and follow the strictest rules applicable in the jurisdiction, laid down by the federal banks and federal governments.
Secondly, most good P2P payment apps are robust, meaning they can work with an unstable network or with a sudden spike in simultaneous logins and transactions. It is essential as users have entrusted their hard-earned money and would not tolerate losing a single penny due to some system glitch.
Finally, a P2P-payments app or an e-wallet is built to provide convenience to their users. The convenience of splitting bills with friends, receiving reminders for recharges or utility payments, making payments for eCommerce transactions, paying for services, transferring money, and even investing in specified securities.
Users can do all this anywhere – while in bed, on the go, at the office, or even scheduling recurring payments. They can do it any time, late at night, on weekends or vacations, or at the eleventh hour to avoid paying penalties.
An electronic wallet mimics your physical wallet, in the sense that you add money to it using your internet banking account, credit or debit cards, or other ewallets. Money gets added to your ewallets when you receive payments from someone or receive a cashback from the app or the merchant.
You can spend the amount that is present in your wallet at any given time, no more than that. If the transaction amount is more considerable than the wallet balance, you can add money to the go using any of the methods mentioned above and continue the payment.
According to a report, the global P2P payment market was worth USD 1.89 trillion in 2021 and is expected to be worth around USD 9.87 trillion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 20.16% from 2022 to 2030.
The same report cites that the global transaction value for P2P-payments apps would see a more significant jump than the number of users. The total global value of transitions was more than USD 4.9 trillion in 2020 and is projected to cross USD 8.18 trillion by 2024, a CAGR of 13.74%.
According to Zelle, a bank-baked payments app company, almost 69% of Generation X smartphone users and 51% of smartphone users among the baby boomers use P2P-payments apps.
There are many popular electronic wallets worldwide – some are popular only in the country of their origin, and some others have an international presence. For example, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, mPesa, Square Cash, etc.
All have international operations spanning multiple countries. Whereas, AliPay, PayTM, Freecharge, PhonePe, etc., are popular mainly in China and India (for the last three).
Whether their operations are limited to a country or are international, these P2P-payments apps have shown consistent and tremendous growth.
The most important reason for these apps’ success is their unwavering focus on the security, reliability, and convenience that they offer and ensure a world-class infrastructure and software design.
Users can switch from one payment app to another at minimal to negligible costs, making the needs of the users, the primary concerns of the apps.
Though it may seem that the market is saturated for a new P2P-payments app, there is always room for creating new markets, exploring innovative ideas, and gaining a decent share in the increasing pie of the P2P-payments app business.
The interoperability of apps – one ewallet can send/receive money from another ewallet by a different company – has left the field open for new innovative products to disrupt established players’ operations.
That is why many unrelated players – from Uber in cab-hailing to food delivery apps like DoorDash, or from Booking.com business wallet to Apple Pay – are all vying for a share in the growing pie. The e-wallet app operator would gain control over the users’ spending data that can be later monetized in many ways.
P2P-payment apps can be categorized based on their services and the openness of the systems. Let us understand what they are and what are the different types of ewallets or P2P-payments apps in each of them.
Many banks have launched their peer-to-peer payment apps to allow their customers to use mobile payment services. Sometimes, instead of launching their separate ewallets, banks partner with an established ewallet player in the market and provide exclusive benefits for their customers.
Bank-centric P2P payments app has the advantage that any transactions are seamlessly integrated with their core banking solution.
Standalone P2P-payments apps build their separate mechanisms from banks and facilitate money transfers from all banks that support them. Users can link their bank accounts from any bank with their electronic wallets and start using them.
Seeing the growth in payment apps and the opportunity for monetization, many social media companies such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Google have recently launched their payment apps. These apps are again standalone but provide seamless payment services for in-app purchases for games and other services.
A closed app is used by a company dealing in fast-moving products and services to let its customers make payments at any of its stores or outlets via these eWallets.
The loyalty benefits and cashback by the company and cash top-ups by the user are all credited to the account in the electronic wallet. Similarly, cancellations and refunds are also credited to the wallet. Closed wallets cannot be used for money transfers, cash withdrawals, or investments.
When the issuer company has tied up with many partners across different segments and users can make payments at any of them, they use a semi-closed eWallet.
Compared to a closed eWallet, their applicability and acceptance are more extensive and dynamic. Usually, smaller merchants with fewer outlets enter into agreements with larger merchants who have issued their eWallets. Like closed wallets, they cannot be used for money transfers, cash withdrawals, or investments in financial instruments.
Banks, financial institutions (like credit card companies), telecom, or social media companies issue eWallets with acceptance at all merchants and no restrictions. Users of open eWallets use them for any category of transactions, including money transfers, cash withdrawals, or investments in financial securities.
P2P-payments apps have become popular very quickly. The simplest reason to understand this is their widespread use and acceptance. Many businesses and other agencies, including schools and healthcare centers, have started accepting P2P payments.
Users can make payments for any facility or product from the convenience of their home or office. It is also convenient for them when it comes to instant money transfers and keeping a transaction trail.
E-Commerce is the immediate and most significant beneficiary of ewallets as payments through them are quick, secure, and efficient.
Many retailers and eCommerce portals host flash sales for the exclusive launch of products. Making payments through their integrated apps is the fastest and means that ewallet users have a better chance of getting those products. Many offline retailers have now started accepting and even issuing payments through ewallets. Users get a detailed billing for future use.
The COVID-19 stay-at-home restrictions and pandemic scare made people shop for groceries and food online or using grocery delivery or food delivery apps. Many stores either tied up with existing peer-to-peer payment apps or started their own to provide contactless payments. Using these apps, one can make donations, tips, and contributions to their close causes.
Public and shared transportation services like ride-sharing, cab-hailing, and Metro services accept electronic money transfers via ewallets. Many cab-hailing companies have started their branded P2P-payments apps that can be used to pay for rides and much more.
Telecom companies can be the biggest beneficiaries of the P2P-payments app, as their users frequently pay bills and do recharge their mobile, DTH, OTT, and utility services. Money transfer, credit card payments and recharges for others are also easily possible.
Security is one of the most critical concerns among users, banks, and the government. Spending for better security with each passing day is, for quite some time, are the best bet and insurance in these markets. When you develop a peer-to-peer payment app like Quadpay, security issues can be provided with:
If your P2P-payments app would be an international app, getting a real-time conversion rate between multiple currencies is difficult. To avoid these restrictions, many international sellers receive their payments in USD or EUR only.
All P2P-payments apps must comply with PCI DSS to operate in the USA market and ensure that rules of GDPR are being honored here.
If there is a dispute between two users or one user and one merchant, the company must make the product more exclusive regarding the sale of a product. Disputes may arise due to failed money transfers, cashback claims, and cancellation of bookings. In any case, the regulatory framework must be robust.
As cash is a federal government subject controlled by the central bank, it is heavily regulated. With these two’s involvement, we can say that the market space for digital payments space using eWallets is heavily regulated.
You need to comply with all norms needed stipulated for P2P payments apps and systems. The challenge increases as each jurisdiction have a different set of rules.
The significant determinants of the cost of creating a mobile P2P-payments App are:
The users would give a great app with superb functionality a pass if their interface is improper. So, today they can focus on the best view and user experience. A good UX plays a vital role in speaking the truth with the attention of users.
Each platform has its unique features and benefits, and the cost of designing the app. Generally, the development team may be handling all sorts of design issues, and some features are applicable to using drugs.
The number of features you want support for in the app would decide the amount of effort and person-hours to be billed. It would have a direct bearing on the cost you may have just met.
The professional and experienced team at Arka Softwares provides a dedicated product/project manager to your project to guide you through the entire journey with us while directing the engineers’ team to fulfill your expectations.
The team would comprise well-trained and experienced UI/UX engineers with exposure to the latest design principles development engineers with Android, or iOS, Windows, Linux, and macOS backgrounds testers and quality assurance engineers cloud-based backend system integrators, and API engineers.
It would take eight weeks or forty days to build a P2P-payments app for Android smartphones in the most conservative estimate. It is assuming 8-hour workdays. Therefore, it would be an estimated 320 person-hours with efforts from the product/project manager, UI/UX engineers, native app developers, system integrators, and testers.
| Country of Development | Minimum Hourly Rate | Cost of Development for 320 Hours | Cost of Development
(In Approx. USD) |
| New Zealand | NZD 140/Hr. | NZD 44,800 | USD 54,900 |
| Europe | EUR 100/Hr. | EUR 32,000 | USD 39,200 |
| USA | USD 120/Hr. | USD 38,400 | USD 38,400 |
| Australia | AUD 140/Hr. | AUD 44,800 | USD 34,100 |
| India | INR 3,750/Hr. | INR 1,200,000 | USD 16,500 |
The approximate cost of USD 16 to 20 thousand is the cost of developing peer-to-peer payments app for your business.
The cost would include the setup and deployment of the cloud-based payments server, a merchant app for shopkeepers, third-party API integration, and a web-based dashboard for management. However, these costs do not include the costs for license fees or the purchase of any third-party APIs or tools that you may need.
We have presented the most competitive and realistic estimates for an Android Peer-to-peer payments app for smartphone users. The estimates for an app for iPhone users would be anywhere ten to fifteen percent marked up, as the tools for iOS are costlier.
Suppose you want a complete or a near-complete solution with Android, iOS, Web applications, and Desktop applications (Windows, Mac, or Linux). In that case, we can customize the package for your individual needs.
P2P payment apps or eWallets make things look very simple, more than the actual complexity behind the scenes. The complexity and challenging features of any electronic payment app look deceptively simple. Users need convenience and safety above all, with added benefits of reliability, cashback, and having to be somewhere.
With too many changes in the digital financial space, any app that brings all these features with an innovative idea is bound to succeed in the long run on technological and financial levels.
Jeeto11
The app quickly earned over 1,000 downloads within two months of launch, and users have responded positively. ARKA Softwares boasted experienced resources who were happy to share their knowledge with the internal team.
Archithrones
While the development is ongoing, the client is pleased with the work thus far, which has met expectations. ARKA Softwares puts the needs of the client first, remaining open to feedback on their work. Their team is adaptable, responsive, and hard-working.
Service Provider
I started my project with Arka Softwares because it is a reputed company. And when I started working with them for my project, I found out that they have everything essential for my work. The app is still under development and but quite confident and it will turn out to be the best.
