PhonePe's ONDC app Pincode expands to nine other cities

PhonePe's dedicated ONDC app, Pincode, has expanded its operations to a total of ten cities, after its successful launch in Bengaluru. The firm announced on July 4.

Even though Pincode's initial plans, which were announced three months ago, included the 10-city expansion, the business had previously claimed that it would not enter any new regions in its first year. Increasing efficiency was the goal rather than merely expanding in size.

Pincode entered important cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Chennai, and Hyderabad with that objective in mind. It stated that services would also be offered in Ahmedabad, Pune, and Kolkata.

“The initial response and rapid consumer adoption of Pincode has given us the confidence to expand our services. Pincode is committed to growing the ecosystem, and we will continue expanding our category offerings and scaling our presence nationwide," Lalit Singh, General Manager, Pincode, said.

“In the coming months, we have ambitious plans for expansion into more cities,” he added.

What is ONDC?

It is a government-backed programme called the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) that aims to democratise e-commerce by converting it from a platform-centric paradigm to an open network for buying and selling products and services.

With ONDC, a customer registered on one e-commerce platform can buy products from a vendor on a different platform that is a participant.

All currently available digital commerce applications and platforms have the option to voluntarily embrace and join the ONDC network. ONDC is neither an aggregator application nor a hosting platform.

The responsibility of integrating e-commerce platforms through a network based on open-source technology akin to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has been given to the Quality Council of India.