India WhatsApp Users, its largest market, may now pay companies using a variety of payment methods within the app.
The Meta-owned app announced Wednesday that it has teamed with PayU and Bengaluru-based Razorpay to enable credit and debit cards, net banking, and all Indian UPI apps.
Wednesday’s action follows WhatsApp’s partnership with Stripe earlier this year to allow Singaporeans pay merchants. June saw merchant payments in Brazil via the app.
“This is going to make it even easier for people to pay Indian businesses within a WhatsApp chat using whatever method they prefer,” said Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the company’s Conversations 2023 event in Mumbai.
WhatsApp told Afriupdate that all Indian WhatsApp users can use the payment feature.
Meta’s greatest market is South Asia, with over 500 million WhatsApp users in India. The app launched its UPI-based payment services in India in 2020 in a pilot that grew to 100 million users last year. It faces heavy competition from Google Pay, Walmart-owned PhonePe, and Indian finance giant Paytm, which dominate the UPI ecosystem.
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Indian WhatsApp businesses could previously accept UPI-based WhatsApp Pay payments. This support allowed Reliance Industries’ JioMart bot to offer end-to-end shopping on WhatsApp last year. The latest update improves consumer experience by offering third-party payment options for app merchants.
It also expands WhatsApp’s commerce capabilities for customers and enterprises. However, the messaging service, which has over 200 million monthly active users on its business app, has yet to see many regular users make purchases in India.
WhatsApp Business has been a major cash generator for WhatsApp, which does not charge users for subscriptions or offer adverts in chats.
The software added automation and bespoke merchant messaging for a fee this year. Payment support may increase income as more WhatsApp users shop, enticing more businesses. WhatsApp’s in-app purchasing experience will be enhanced by Flows, which lets users book flights and appointments directly from the chat app.
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