WhatsApp said on Wednesday, that it would start accepting credit card payments in India as well as services from competing digital payment companies.
This is the most recent wager made by the service owned by Meta to increase commerce options in its largest market.
In India, WhatsApp has more than 500 million users, but regulators have limited the number of users who can use the in-app WhatsApp Pay service to just 100 million. Although only after being transferred outside of WhatsApp, customers who shop on WhatsApp might also pay using well-known services like Alphabet’s Google Pay, Paytm, and Walmart’s PhonePe.
According to a blog post by Meta, payments made through those competing services—as well as any others that use India’s UPI instant money transfer system—will now be accepted straight within WhatsApp.
There will also be new credit and debit card in-app choices available.
The acquisitions support Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s agenda, which has become more urgent as Meta’s core ad business and metaverse project have faced challenges, for business messaging to become the “next major pillar” of the company’s sales development.
According to the blog post, any Indian business that utilises WhatsApp’s business platform, which mostly caters to large businesses, will have access to the new payment facilities.
With around 300 million individuals using UPI to spend $180 billion in India each month, the expanded transaction alternatives might be a strong incentive for companies to pay Meta for access to WhatsApp users.
