WhatsApp to bring in-chat payment option to India by December: Report
- WhatsApp is the most popular messaging platform in India with over 200 million users.
- The messaging platform has teamed up with three banks namely SBI, ICICI and HDFC.
- It will need a bank's UPI structure.
FollowWe've been hearing about WhatsApp to soon offer payment option within WhatsApp chat. Now, a new report surfaces claiming WhatsApp Pay could be made available by December.
According to FactorDaily, WhatsApp Pay feature is in testing and could be launched by December. India could be among the first countries. India is one of the biggest markets for WhatsApp and so this move isn't surprising.
WhatsApp is the most popular messaging platform in India with over 200 million users. The report further adds that the messaging platform has teamed up with three banks namely SBI, ICICI and HDFC. It will need a bank's UPI structure. WhatsApp is working on an in-chat payment option.
This is in line with the previous rumours that WhatsApp plans to use UPI, backed by the government and also integrated by Ola, to enable payments between users. A Techcrunch report had claimed that this could happen within the next six months.
This isn't something new for messaging platforms as Truecaller has already introduced user-to-user payments via tie-up with ICICI Bank. Facebook has also added payments to its messenger app in the US.
For those not in the know, to promote PM Modi's digital India dream the Reserve Bank of India has come up with Unified Payment Interface System (UPI) through National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to facilitate digital transactions. UPI apps were launched earlier this year, and compete with mobile wallets like Paytm. With UPI, you don't need to feed money into a wallet, and it is directly linked to your bank account. Transactions you make with UPI are linked to a virtual id for all payments, without the need for IFSC code and so on.
