Comments
WhatsApp will soon be able to roll out its digital payments platform WhatsApp Pay in India, Business Standard reported on Friday.
The Facebook-owned messaging platform finally received the go-ahead from the National Payments Corporation of India on Thursday to roll out its services in phases. The platform had received RBI’s approval as well after ensuring authorities that it will comply with data localisation norms, the report said.
The key delay
Data localisation norms have been the key reason for the company to delay its digital payment services in the country. According to RBI’s data localisation norms, foreign companies are required to store all transaction-related data and user data in servers located within the country while removing the data from all foreign servers within 24 hours.
The platform has been testing out a beta version of its payments platform since 2018 with more than10 lakh users availing the service by 2019, according to media reports.
Competitive market
WhatsApp, post the launch of its digital payments platform, will compete against similar platforms such as Paytm and Google Pay amid India’s strengthening digital payments market.
According to a previous report, the number of digital transactions on IMPS and BHIM platformshad registered record highs in January.
The number of transactions through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) stood at 130.5 crore, for a total value of ₹ 2.16-lakh crore.
As per a report by App Annie, Google Pay, formerly Tez, was the most popular finance app in 2019, with more than 3.6crore downloads over the year and a 50 per cent YoY growth.
Facebook initiatives
Facebook Inc, WhatsApp’s parent company, had launched a new platform Facebook Pay in the US in November 2019. The platform which is a unified payments service allows users to make payments across Facebook-owned platforms including WhatsApp and Instagram without having to exit the app.
The company had also introduced a ‘shopping catalogue’ feature on WhatsApp in November 2019 for users in Brazil, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Britain and the US. The feature enables WhatsApp Business app users to display a “mobile storefront” where they can display a digital catalogue of their products with images and prices, according to a Reuters report.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.