The company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook would soon launch its payments service, WhatsApp Pay, in India. WhatsApp Pay, when launched, would compete against the likes of Paytm, PhonePe, and Google Pay.
“We have our test going in India. The test really shows that a lot of people are going to want to use this product. We’re very optimistic that we’re going to be able to launch to everyone in India soon, but of course will share more news when we have that,” – Zuckerberg told analysts on an earnings call on Wednesday.
With this new service, users will be able to connect their UPI accounts to WhatsApp and then make transactions with other users onboard the service. If launched, it could potentially reach over 400 million WhatsApp users in India.
WhatsApp has about 400 million users in India and has been testing its payments in the country since last year with about a million users. However, the government and the Reserve Bank of India have repeatedly raised concerns over some of WhatsApp Pay’s features in complying with their norms before launching it in the country. The timeline for the launch is yet unknown.
