Paytm brings ATM and Twitter is asking what happened to ‘cashless’ slogan

(Photo: Twitter/@Jas_Kapany)


Online payment major Paytm has installed the company’s ATMs across major cities of the country as per a phased plan of expanding the reach of the company into the banking sector. In a blog in 2017, Paytm had announced its decision to install 1,00,000 Paytm Ka ATMs across India, of which 3,000 were to be installed in the first phase itself.

On 25 April, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma retweeted a tweet showing an ATM kiosk of Paytm from which a customer had made a withdrawal. He also posted a short comment, “Paytm ka ATM” with a star indicating appreciation.

Here is the tweet and the retweet.

 

 

Some users praised Sharma.

 

But there was one user who pointed out that Paytm had on 9 November 2016 posted a creative tweet containing an advertisement in which it indirectly hailed the demonetisation decision taken by the central government a day before.

The tweet carried one of the most popular advertisement slogans: ATM nahi, Paytm karo.

 

One of the screenshots above contains this tweet:

 

(Photo: Screenshot/@paytm)

The tweet which Paytm had posted in November 2016 was still up at the time of writing. Many saw the Paytm advertisement as in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision which was meant to turn India into a cashless economy.

So, obviously, some were surprised at the turn to the ATMs that Paytm has taken.