We know WhatsApp as that messaging app we use to catch up with friends and family and all its features have been geared to make such communication simple. However, Facebook seems to have other other plans and it involves mobile money.
Apparently, WhatsApp plans to use UPI which is a cross bank payment system in India that is backed by the government which would enable payments between users within 6 months.
When TechCrunch inquired more about the story from WhatsApp, they were able to obtain the following statement from the company.
India is an important country for WhatsApp, and we’re understanding how we can contribute more to that vision of Digital India. We’re exploring how we might work with companies that share this vision and continuing to listen closely to feed back from our users.
The focus on India in the area of mobile payments is not weird at all. Truecaller partnered with a bank to enable peer-to-peer payments between Truecallers in India. Multinationals use India as a market to try new products for a developing market and if the service goes well, maybe WhatsApp could roll out the feature into more markets.
This feature could also pair quite well with the reported Business Chat tools where users can interact with businesses and pay directly within Whatsapp.
WhatsApp is not the only mass market service that offers peer-to-peer service. In addition to Truecaller, people can send and receive money on Gmail and on Messenger via bots which are available in markets like the United States.
