It has been over a year since UPI’s launch in India and a lot of companies like Olacabs, Truecaller and Razorpay have integrated UPI on their platforms. UPI payments are advantageous because they are direct instantaneous P2P Bank to Bank transfers without the need to have a Digital wallet to store money!
A P Hota, MD & CEO, NPCI said, “This unified layer, which offers next generation peer-to-peer immediate payment just by using a personal phone, uses existing systems such as IMPS, AEPS, to ensure settlement across accounts. The usages of existing systems ensure the reliability of payment transactions across various channels.”
Now, the largest messaging app right now, WhatsApp is also in the process of integrating UPI on its platform, for peer to peer transfer of money. With over 1 billion active users on the platform and 200 million users in India, this integration can be the next biggest disruption for other similar services.
It has the potential to become the main app for users to transfer money to other people. Even those not registered on mobile wallets will definitely have a WhatsApp account and the company can take advantage of this fact.
“The initiative is seen as strategic for Facebook and currently being driven out of the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Its career page lists, among other roles, an opening for a digital transaction lead with knowledge of UPI, Aadhaar and BHIM, to be based out of Menlo Park,” reports The Ken.
How can WhatsApp Disrupt Digital Payments Market?
A platform that has over 200 million users on it already, and that relies only on phone numbers for communication is perfect for UPI payments. All you need is the phone number of the other person and transfer money within seconds.
There is no need of mobile wallets in the middle because money will be transferred directly between bank accounts, allowing you to drop the hassles of maintaining digital wallets in India. In fact, you don’t even need smartphones for this, since features phone will also support UPI integration.
If WhatsApp can introduce its service for feature phones, then it will be a big win for Indians. It can easily obliterate Paytm and other similar wallets that also has UPI integrated. This feature is still in the testing mode and WhatsApp is working on integrating UPI on their app, so it might come by the second half of the year.
Source: Factor Daily
