New Delhi (NVI): Following the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) nod to WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, to roll out its payments service in India, Mark Zuckerberg today said that payments were available now in 10 Indian regional language versions of the platform.
The approval by NPCI comes after two years of testing.
Starting today, people across India will be able to send money through WhatsApp ? This secure payments experience makes transferring money just as easy as sending a message. pic.twitter.com/bM1hMEB7sb
— WhatsApp Inc. (@WhatsApp) November 6, 2020
Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook, in a video message also said that with UPI — on which WhatsApp payments is built — India had created something truly special and was opening up a world of opportunities for micro and small businesses that were the backbone of the Indian economy.
WhatsApp has partnered with five leading banks in India including ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, the State Bank of India, and Jio Payments Bank.
WhatsApp can expand its UPI user base in a graded manner starting with a maximum registered user base of 20 million in UPI, NPCI said.
The Facebook-owned private messaging service has a huge user base of over 400 million users in India.
In June, Brazil became the first country to roll out WhatsApp payment service.
In India, this service will compete against other major players like Google Pay and PhonePe, among others.
Furthermore, WhatsApp Pay will be available in ten regional Indian languages and both iOS and Android users can use it by updating to the latest version of the app.
-CHK
