It’s been a few months since, as the popular Facebook owned WhatsApp messenger (his audience on a global scale is 200 million people) started in India payments function. Since then, the number of users reached one million.
According to Quartz, citing its own sources, now WhatsApp deals with the correction of deficiencies in the payment function, and adding additional options under beta testing launched in February. The service uses a uniform interface (UPI) the National payment Corporation of India. It does not require users WhatsApp download more digital wallet and gives direct access to Bank accounts using the virtual identifier.
As Quartz reports, Credit Suisse has predicted a growth of the payments market to $1 trillion. in 2023. It should be noted that the launch of WhatsApp in India took place more slowly than expected: the company had to wait for the approval of the government. In addition, in April changed the statutory requirements for payment companies, the Reserve Bank of India has issued a new Directive on data storage. In April, WhatsApp posted a vacancy announcement for the head of the local branch and it says that the company intends to expand its activities in India.
According to Quartz, WhatsApp, coming to the Indian market fees, accounted for a significant competition to local players. For example, the use of UPI makes unnecessary the services of wallets. In addition, the WhatsApp-like messenger already has a large user base in India.
Exit WhatsApp, the Indian market has prompted some payment companies to take retaliatory steps. The company Paytm, in November launched a feature in its messenger app to compete with WhatsApp and its founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma complained on Twitter that WhatsApp is trying to monopolize the market of digital payments in the country.
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