WhatsApp payments service: Mark Zuckerberg calls India world leader for 'embracing messaging to get things done'

Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, while launching new features for WhatsApp at the Meta’s Annual Conversations in Mumbai, said India is leading the world in terms of how people and businesses have embraced messaging as the better way to get things done.

The Meta founder said that the company is looking at building more tools for its messaging products — WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram DMs, based on the trends. This will be done on how not just people, but even businesses are using these messaging apps.

"India (is) a country that's at the forefront of a lot of what we're going to talk about today. You're (India is) leading the world in terms of how people and businesses have embraced messaging as the better way to get things done," Zuckerberg said during the event that also saw the launch of WhatsApp Flows, Payments and Meta Verified.

“Now, this is how we've continued to innovate with our messaging formats, our group chats and broadcast channels,” he added.

The Meta-owned messaging app has partnered with Razorpay and PayU to bring more payment options for the users. This move aims to encourage users to make purchases on the platform.

During his address, Zuckerberg announced the launch of WhatsApp Flows, which is the newest offering on the messaging app that gives businesses the ability to create customised experiences within chat threads.

“So, for example, a bank can build a way for customers to book an appointment to open a new account, a food delivery service can build a way to place any order from any of their partner restaurants or an airline can build a way to check in for a flight and pick up a seat, all without having to leave the chat thread,” Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg also announced another feature in this direction where consumers can pay for things within a chat thread using various payment options. This payment solution was first launched in Brazil and Singapore and is now being introduced in India.

“With payments in India, we're going to support other payment methods as well, including all UPI apps. This is going to make it even easier for people to pay Indian businesses within a WhatsApp chat using whatever method they prefer,” Zuckerberg added.

He also announced the launch of Meta Verified for businesses using WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, which will be rolled out in the coming months.

He added businesses that subscribe will get a verified badge, account support, impersonation protection and additional features that will help people find them more easily.

On WhatsApp, this would include premium features such as a custom web page and increased multi-device support.

WhatsApp Pay in India

India has around 535.8 million daily active WhatsApp users, which makes it the most popular instant messaging app in the country. But despite this, WhatsApp Pay was not a success in its operations. The testing of WhatsApp Pay started in 2018, and it was formally launched in 2020.

In March 2022, the company had launched a small campaign after receiving approval to run the UPI in India.

In a week, WhatsApp recorded around 8-10 million transactions, with over 1.6 million users signing up every day. In April 2023, the company’s UPI saw 15 million transactions totaling a value of Rs 1,300 crore.

NPCI data shows that there were 10.5 billion UPI transactions in the month of August. The volumes are mainly driven by three players: PhonePe, Paytm, and Google Pay.

In terms of distribution of UPI transactions by apps, domestic fintech and ecommerce platform PhonePe led UPI market share in June, with over 47 per cent of all UPI transactions taking place through the latter. Google Pay (35 per cent) and Paytm (14 per cent) ranked second and third, respectively.

 

Also read: WhatsApp users in India can now pay using UPI apps like Gpay, Paytm and credit, debit cards

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