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Last updated on October 22nd, 2021 at 08:13 am
Facebook finally received regulatory approval to launch the WhatsApp payment service in India. The service first launched in India as beta in 2018 with 1 million users. However, there were concerns regarding data storage and sharing which delayed the full version launch.
WhatsApp’s payment system will use India’s national payments infrastructure, known as the Unified Payments Interface or UPI. This is a big step for WhatsApp, since India is their biggest market, home to about 400 million users. The big news was even announced by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg through a video he created himself.
Now you’re going to be able to easily send money to your friends and family through WhatsApp just as easily as sending a message.
Mark Zuckerberg
Leading providers in the digital payment services in India are Walmart’s PhonePe and Google Pay. They control the majority of the market, followed by Paytm and Amazon Pay.
However, digital payment providers in India are facing new challenges. No service will be allowed to process more than 30% of the total volume of UPI transactions. The regulatory body said WhatsApp would only be allowed to launch the service in a “graded” manner, starting with “a maximum registered user base” of 20 million UPI customers.
In a blog post, Facebook said it had worked with five “leading banks” on its new payment service: ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, the State Bank of India, and Jio Payments Bank. UPI itself is supported by more than 160 banks.
In the meantime, the first crypto-friendly financial institution will also open in India.
