WhatsApp plans to roll out digital payment service in India
Mumbai : Facebook owned WhatsApp, an instant messaging app, is gearing up to enter into digital payment servies in India. This will be first such offering globally. They even advertisd to hire a digital transactions lead in the country.
Advertisement related to job on WhatsApp’s website said it is looking for candidate with technical and financial background. A candidate who minutely understands India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and the BHIM payments app that enable money transfer and merchant payments using mobile payments.
WhatsApp entry into digital payments in India, home to 200 million of its billion plus global users, would also initiate similar moves by other instant messaging apps like WeChat.
“India is an important country for WhatsApp, and we understand how we can contribute more to the vision of Digital India,” a WhatsApp spokesman said, referring to a flagship government programme that aims to boost the use of Internet-based services in the country.
“We’re exploring how we might work with companies that share this vision and continuing to listen closely to feedback from our users,” the spokesman said, declining to elaborate further.
Digital Transactions in India have grown after Prime Minister Narendra Modi demonetization move, The ban of 500 and 1000 notes in November which accounted for more than 80% of the country’s currency circulation at that time.
In February, WhatsApp’s co-founder, Brian Acton, had told local media that the app was in early stages of investigating digital payments in the country and that he had talked to the Indian government about the matter.
Just a week before ,Swedish communications app Truecaller, which has a large user base in India, started a mobile payment service in the country based on the UPI platform.
