Facebook is planning to bring WhatsApp Pay to many more countries in the coming months. With a promising market, India, Brazil, Philippines will be the main targets.
''I'm really excited about this, and I expect this to start rolling out in a number of countries and for us to make a lot of progress here in the next six months,'' said Mark Zuckerberg.
In 2018, WhatsApp Pay found its way in India to test its functionality among the users. However, licensing issues deemed to be a major factor for the trial version to be discontinued.
Mandated by the government, companies looking to acquire a digital payments license need to have 100% data localization. Since WhatsApp has not reached the required mark, Indian market might have to wait a little longer for the launch.
In their beta version, WhatsApp Pay set out to avail quick and easy money transactions with its main objective to make sending and receiving money just like sending an attachment.
Users could access the payment options from attachments, set the amount and enter their PIN to complete the transaction. Users could also connect it with their bank accounts. These transactions are based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
Digitalized India has over 10 million people who regularly use digital payment mode for transactions. With Google Pay and Paytm already set in the market, WhatsApp Pay will face a tough competition. But a 400 million user base in India can pull the strings in their favour when it launches.
