WhatsApp Pay is finally allowed in Brazil

Meta's instant messaging service, WhatsApp, has received approval from Brazil's Central Bank to launch its new payment feature in the country.

WhatsApp users in Brazil have been able to make user-to-user payments via the app since 2021, but the new development opens the door for merchants to receive payments.
The new feature will allow users:
- browse products,
- add products to their cart
- make payments with Mastercard and Visa debit and credit cards directly from their WhatsApp chat.
WhatsApp Pay, which is directly linked to Facebook Pay, requires a credit or debit card issued by Visa or Mastercard linked to one of the following approved financial institutions: Banco do Brasil, Itaú, Bradesco, Nubank, Banco Inter, Mercado Pago, Next, Sicredi and Woop .
Users can send up to R$1,000 per transaction with a monthly limit of R$5,000 and can make up to 20 daily transactions.
In addition to end-to-end encryption between smartphones and WhatsApp's servers, WhatsApp Pay also benefits from additional security features, such as tokenization and biometrics.

An experimentation phase : WhatsApp has high hopes for markets like India and Brazil with its 120 million active users where it has a dominant presence.
Finding new sources of revenue : Commercial messaging has also found a more important place in Meta's plans with the slowdown in advertising revenues.

WhatsApp had launched a payment feature in 2020, but the company had to back out due to objections from the Central Bank of Brazil. WhatsApp's peer-to-peer system seemed incompatible with Brazil's existing payment system due to competition and data privacy concerns.
WhatsApp played a key role in bringing far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to power in the 2018 elections. During the 2022 general election, WhatsApp made the decision to delay the launch of its new Communities feature until after the election, drawing the ire of the incumbent president, who wanted to build on the new feature in his 2022 re-election campaign.

Category : Alertes quotidiennes