WhatsApp, owned by Meta (META.O), announced on Wednesday that it will begin accepting credit card payments and services from competing digital payment providers within its app in India. This is the latest risk by the firm to boost commerce capabilities in its most significant region.
Even though WhatsApp has more than 500 million users in India, the country’s government has limited the number of individuals utilizing its in-app payment service, WhatsApp Pay, to just 100 million. People who were buying on WhatsApp had the option of paying with popular services such as Google Pay, which is owned by Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL.O), Paytm, which is owned by Walmart (WMT.N), and PhonePe, which is owned by Walmart (WMT.N), but they had to leave WhatsApp to do so.
According to a blog post published by Meta, customers will soon be able to make payments via these rival firms, in addition to others functioning on India’s quick money transfer system UPI. Additionally, enhanced in-app payment options for credit and debit cards will be accessible.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, aspires for corporate messaging to become the “next major pillar” of the company’s sales expansion. This objective has gained more importance as Meta’s major advertisements business and metaverse project have come under attack. The additions provide support for Zuckerberg’s plan.
A spokeswoman for Meta claimed that there is no limit on the number of users permitted to deal with companies on WhatsApp utilizing other techniques. However, the number of WhatsApp Pay customers in India will remain capped.
The extra transaction choices may give a significant temptation to encourage firms to pay Meta for access to WhatsApp users. Every month, about 300 million individuals in India utilize UPI to spend approximately $180 billion. Thus, this figure indicates the potential potency of the additional transaction alternatives.
To this day, WhatsApp has only enabled end-to-end shopping experiences in India through a few trial programs. These ventures include one with the online grocery store JioMart, owned and operated by India’s richest person, billionaire Mukesh Ambani, and experimental programs with the metro systems in Chennai and Bengaluru.
Based on the blog post, moving ahead, the newly created payment capabilities would be made accessible to any organization in India that makes use of WhatsApp’s commercial platform, which usually caters to large corporations.
Following a second blog post, Meta will expand its Meta Verified membership service to businesses globally. This will give businesses a mechanism to certify the legitimacy of their stuff and enhance it in consumers’ feeds.
According to the article, monthly memberships will cost $21.99 per Facebook page or Instagram account or $34.99 for both in a limited number of countries. Afterward, the service will be expanded to WhatsApp at a later point and continue to roll out in more nations.
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