Facebook To Launch Its Whatsapp Payment Service In Indian Market.

WhatsApp rolled out WhatsApp payments feature for the test to more than 1 million users last year in 2018. And now it seems like Facebook is all set to launch its WhatsApp payment service in Indian market. The social media giant has now moved to the audit process. If the company receives a green signal from Reserve bank of India (RBI) after submitting a report to RBI for approval, WhatsApp payments service will enter the crowded payments marketplace in India.

What was opposing Facebook to start this feature earlier?

Government of India had initially delayed the launch of the payment feature because of data privacy and security concerns. The government asked WhatsApp to unfold their data practice to a third party auditor to ensure that all the data involved in payments will be stored on Indian servers only including full end to end transaction details, information collected, processed as a part of message, and payment instructions. Whatsapp payments service is all set to unveil itself in Indian market and we can expect a heavy rivalry with existing payment giants like Paytm, Amazon pay and Google pay. “WhatsApp looks forward to providing WhatsApp Payments based on the UPI standards to all the users in India and we continue to work with our local partners towards a shared goal of supporting a more digital India” spokesperson Carl Woog said in an email.

India currently has over 300 million users in India and this number increases daily as more users buy a smartphone. Everyone from eight to eighty years old in India are clued into WhatsApp, giving it a phenomenal reach. Also those business companies like MakeMyTrip and BookMyShow using whatsapp, will find it easy for payment transactions through WhatsApp. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO has said that “it should be as easy to send money to someone as it is to send a photo”.