Soon, Uber India users will be able to pay via Paytm while abroad

The integration with Alipay works on both sides as Chinese users travelling abroad will also be able to book an Uber cab via the AliPay app — they won’t have to separately download Uber on their phones. Paytm, which is backed by Alibaba, which owns Alipay, also plans this kind of integration on its own app as well.

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The advantage with this feature is that Uber users who don’t have a credit card while travelling abroad can use the cab service without hassles. Both Alipay and Paytm will charge users in their respective currencies. Effectively an Indian user will pay for their Uber ride in say New York in rupees rather than dollars.

Paytm says it will not charge any hidden fees for conversion and will convert based on current Forex cards.

When asked about why the Uber-Paytm international integration was launching later, Paytm’s CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said that the company was working on the API integration and the technical solution would be ready soon.

“We want to bring better payment services to people in India and we are achieving our goal with technologies powered by Alipay. We are working closely with our global partners like Uber and Alipay to benefit our 126 million users” he said.

Uber says that India is the third largest market for the company in terms of trips taken by users, and behind US and China. Uber did not reveal numbers of how many Indian users were availing the service when traveling abroad.