WhatsApp Global Head Will Cathcart has said that the company is going to launch its peer-to-peer, UPI-based payment platform for people across India later this year.
Facebook-owned WhatsApp has about 400 million users across India. The messaging app which has been testing the payments in India since last year with around a million users got stuck in the digital payments framework guidelines but now, the service is in the final stages.
The company wants that sending money should become as easy as it is sending a message, and can’t wait to launch WhatsApp Payments for all its Indian users by the end of this year, Cathcart said.
Speaking at an event he said, “We believe that if we get this right, it will accelerate financial inclusion and bring value for people in India’s fast-growing digital economy.”
WhatsApp’s service, which would compete against the other payment gateways like Paytm, PhonePe and Google Pay, is yet to be rolled out nationally in India.
WhatsApp has over 1.5 billion users globally, and is looking rolling out its payments service in other markets as well.
