Paytm experiences service outage, stranding customers
The mobile payments app's founder Vijay Shekhar said the website was experiencing 'super high traffic' because of capacity additions and installations.
Mobile payments application Paytm experienced a service outage on Thursday. The company acknowledged the problem on Twitter, saying that it was updating its systems to increase its capacity.
Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar also issued a similar statement, adding that the service was experiencing “super high traffic” because of capacity additions and installations during the day.
Some users complained on social media that they had been unable to access the service’s website or make payments. Some users also complained about the lack of customer service.
Paytm offers mobile recharge and utility bill payment, besides being a marketplace to consumers on its mobile application. It has more than 100mn registered users, according to its website.
The mobile commerce platform, which claims to have 100 million registered users, has seen a surge in new customers ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 announced the overnight invalidation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. As Indians were stuck without cash, the service began to be used by the most unlikely customers.
Given that many people have no access to cash, especially in urban India, the outage sparked several complaints.
The company later said that the issues had been addressed and that the service was up and running.