After a plenty of start and stop and legal issues, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has finally got the nod to launch its payments service in India.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has given WhatsApp the go-ahead to go live on the country's United Payments Interface (UPI). WhatsApp can expand its UPI userbase gradually.
But the permission has come with a caveat. NPCI has told WhatsApp, which has over 400 million users in India, can expand payments to its users in a “graded manner”.
As per NCPI, WhatsApp can extend the payments service to 20 million users and has to work with multiple banking partners.
NPCI has also said it would be enforcing a cap on third-party apps to ensure that no single app processes more than 30% of all UPI transactions in a month.
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Now transferring money on WhatsApp is as easy as sending message
Starting today, people across India will be able to send money through WhatsApp 💸 This secure payments experience makes transferring money just as easy as sending a message. pic.twitter.com/bM1hMEB7sbNovember 6, 2020
After the green signal yesterday, WhatsApp today said, "Starting today, people across India will be able to send money through WhatsApp Money. This secure payments experience makes transferring money just as easy as sending a message."
WhatsApp Pay is said to be rolled out in ten Indian regional languages.
The company has hundreds of millions of users in India but is facing a crowded payments market with stiff competition from Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm.
WhatsApp Pay beta-tested in India in 2018, and it amassed 1 million users. The beta was launched in February 2018 and offered P2P capabilities when users linked their accounts to a bank account. And it did go on to meet the RBI's data localization regulations prior to the October 15, 2018 deadline by providing domestic data storage.
Earlier this year, the firm launched payments in Brazil only to be shut down by the central bank within ten days over competition issues.
WhatsApp betting big on India
WhatsApp Pay service in India, is expected to create a major splash in terms of digital transactions. At stake is India’s mobile payments market, which is estimated to reach $1 trillion by 2023.
WhatsApp is well primed for this contest, it would appear. Its parent Facebook bought a 9.9% stake in Reliance Jio for Rs 43,574 crore. The partnership between Facebook and Jio is unprecedented in many ways. Jio Platforms has an estimated user base of over 380 million across the country. Jio is betting big on WhatsApp Pay to carry on its ambitious e-commerce forays.
WhatsApp Pay is expected to follow the tracks of China's WeChat Pay, which leverages on the popularity of its parent platform. WeChat Pay is a top player in China's mobile payment market, with 800 million monthly active users (MAU), and its success is largely due to it being part of WeChat's ecosystem, which boasts over 1 billion MAU.
WhatsApp India head Abhijit Bose had said it can bring at least 200 million of its users to UPI, which is seeing steady growth in digital payments amid the pandemic. WhatsApp has plans too to start multiple pilots in areas like digital lending, micro-insurance and micro-pension in 18 months.
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