Whatsapp’s Payments Launches In This Country After Successful Testing In India: How It Works?

As per the reports, after the months of talks and trials, finally, WhatsApp has pulled the trigger on payments in its app as today the Facebook-owned messaging service announced that users in Brazil would be the first to be able to send and receive money by way of its messaging app, using Facebook Pay, the payments service WhatsApp owner Facebook launched last year.

What Does WhatsApp Say?

The news is confirmed in a WhatsApp blog post that the payments service, which is currently free for consumers to use (that is, no commission fee taken).

The company said, “Payments on WhatsApp are beginning to roll out to people across Brazil beginning today and we look forward to bringing it to everyone as we go forward,” in the post. 

Although businesses pay a 3.99% processing fee to receive payments, they will work by way of a six-digit PIN or fingerprint to complete transactions.

Basically, it can be used by linking up your WhatsApp account to your Visa or Mastercard credit or debit card, with initial local partners including Banco do Brasil, Nubank and Sicredi. 

Apart from that, Cielo, a payments processor, is also working with WhatsApp to complete transactions as it said, “We have built an open model to welcome more partners in the future,”.

The news comes as a bit of a surprise as WhatsApp had been testing its payments service among users in India for months (that trial uses another system, not Facebook Pay but UPI), so many assumed that the world’s second-largest internet market would be the debut region for the service.

Why Would This Happen?

Basically, Facebook has remained stuck in a regulatory maze in India that has prevented it from expanding the payments service beyond a small, limited launch, in what is otherwise the app’s biggest market in terms of users. 

So far, India has 400 million monthly active users, while the second-largest market Brazil has 120 million MAUs.

What About Business WhatsApp?

Almost from the very start, WhatsApp had been adopted informally for commercial purposes.

Moreover, small business owners have used it to exchange messages with users around the sale of goods, what is in stock and so on. 

Although, under the wing of Facebook, WhatsApp started in earnest the big task of bringing in a more formal set of business services.

That also included the launch of WhatsApp Business, which lets SMBs post catalogs and stock links within the app, advertisers on Facebook also can create links through to their WhatsApp accounts.

With the launch of payments, WhatsApp has amassed over 2 billion users and is finally taking a more comprehensive commercial plunge, giving people not just a place to chat about a product, or even send payment details, but now to actually transact.