Popular messaging app WhatsApp is possibly looking into digital payment services, starting in India. It was revealed that WhatsApp has advertised to hire a digital transactions lead in the country.
This move by WhatsApp seems to mirror China’s vastly popular messaging app WeChat and Japan’s LINE whereby WeChat and LINE both provides capabilities for funds transfers as well as mobile payments through the messaging app.
Starting out in India could be a strategic move, with India being WhatsApp’s largest market; consisting of 200 million of its billion plus global users. According to a Reuters report, WhatsApp is aiming to launch person-to-person payments in India in the next six months.
Reuters wrote that “A job advertisement on WhatsApp’s website said it was looking for a candidate with a technical and financial background – who understands India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and the BHIM payments app that enable money transfers and merchant payments using mobile numbers – to be its digital transactions lead for the country.”
“India is an important country for WhatsApp, and we’re understanding how we can contribute more to the vision of Digital India,” a WhatsApp spokesman told Reuters, referring to a flagship government program that aims to boost the use of Internet-based services in the country.
“We’re exploring how we might work with companies that share this vision and continuing to listen closely to feedback from our users,” the spokesman said, declining to elaborate further.
Reuters notes that digital transactions in India have surged after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s shock ban of certain high-value bank notes in November that accounted for more than 80 percent of the country’s currency in circulation at the time.
Earlier this year, WhatsApp’s co-founder, Brian Acton, had told local media that the app was in early stages of investigating digital payments in the country and that he had talked to the Indian government about the matter. Although Swedish communications app Truecaller might have them beat by speed, launching a mobile payment service in the country based on the UPI platform last week. Truecaller holds a large user base in India.
