WhatsApp Pay is now available to all users in India
The end of 2024 was marked by an important step towards the democratisation of Scriptural means of payment in India, with the lifting of restrictions on WhatsApp Pay. The payment service integrated with the Meta Group WhatsApp email application uses the interface UPI (Unified Payments Interface), the interbank system designed to facilitate digital payments in the country. So far limited in terms of users, the service has just been lifted.
FACTS
- The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which is dependent on the Indian central bank and oversees, among other things, the UPI instant payment system, has recently lifted the restrictions that so far limited the number of WhatsApp Pay users in India to 100 million.
- India currently has some 500 million WhatsApp subscribers and therefore as many potential users for WhatsApp Pay in the country.
ISSUES
- To acquire a major market : With an estimated population of 1.4 billion people, India is a major market for the deployment of web giant services aimed at international conquest. The country is also the largest market in terms of users for Meta and therefore a potential Eldorado for its payment services.
- Rebalancing competition : The Indian platform UPI has Treaty more than 16 billion transactions in December 2024 (marking an 8% increase over the previous month). So far, PhonePe and Google Pay are the dominant applications on the UPI network. Largely as they currently manage more than 85% of UPI transactions according to Official data. WhatsApp has so far been confined to the 11th place of applications using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
- Continue payment renewal : WhatsApp Pay participates in the renewal of the means of payment in India. Service obtained and its authorisation to Indian regulators to test WhatsApp Pay with a limited sample of 1 million users in 2020, just before being authorised to deploy gradually its P2P payment service to a wider user base. India working on its own MBBC for several years, promoting the use of e-rupee in chain stores and in traders.
PERSPECTIVE
- While this current market opening is expected to facilitate the deployment of WhatsApp Pay, NCPI has also stated that its ambition to limit each application's market share on the UPI network to 30% in the long term. Implementation of this decision is now expected to take place by December 31, 2026, rather than late 2024 as originally announced.
- On a global scale, WhatsApp Pay wins in any case a new battle after the one won in Brazil in March 2023 when the service received approval from the Central Bank to launch its payment functionality in the country.
Traduit automatiquement via Libretranslate / Automatically translated via Libretranslate