Meta unveiled WhatsApp Pay in India --- among the first two nations to get it --- with high hopes. But it did not get off to a flying start as was widely predicted. But now, after receiving the nod last week to expand its service in India, the parent company Meta is unveiling big plans for WhatsApp Pay in the country.
At the second edition of Fuel For India, a virtual annual India event to showcase Meta’s various initiatives in the country yesterday, it said it has kicked off a pilot program in 500 villages across the states of Karnataka and Maharashtra to enable people to pay through WhatsApp.
WhatsApp India Head Abhijit Bose said "we have started this pilot program in 500 villages across Karnataka and Maharashtra as part of our mission to onboard the next 500 million to the digital payments ecosystem."
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WhatsApp and JioMart tango
Called Digital Payments Utsav, the program got off at a village in Mandya district (Karnataka), where an on-ground team educated people about digital payments, including setting up a UPI (Unified Payments Interface) account and paying through WhatsApp. Meta said many shops in the village have begun to accept WhatsApp Pay through QR codes.
It may be recalled that WhatsApp recently introduced India-specific features including adding ₹ (rupee) symbol in its chat composer for sending payments, and the camera icon in composer, which lets users scan any QR (quick response) code.
Aside from the pilot program, WhatsApp Pay is also banking on its association with Jio - JioMart to be precise - to further its presence in the lucrative but highly competitive digital payments space in India.
During the event Akash Ambani, Director & Head of Strategy at Jio Platforms, said digital shopping is now just an extension of messaging via WhatsApp to JioMart, it’s all taken care of in a couple of steps effortlessly.
"We intend to build out native features that will not only help users shop seamlessly on WhatsApp but will also help retailers increase stock assortments, improve margins and get them closer to perhaps a larger base of customers, like never before," he added.
Jio is going to create an ecosystem of services and offerings where WhatsApp Payments becomes pivotal to the scheme of things. This will allow Meta to benefit from its strategic partnership with Jio.
Meta invested $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms in April 2020, and since then WhatsApp has been part of JioMart’s roll out in the country.
Meta to invest in India's gaming sector
Aside from WhatsApp Pay, Meta is setting much store on the developer and creator communities in India as it believes they will play an important role in the creation and evolution of a metaverse.
“When we’re thinking about…where all these creators and developers going to come from—who are going to really build the foundation of the metaverse, I think it’s just obvious that India is going to be a huge part of that,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the event.
Meta would increase investments in the country’s gaming sector, which will help shape a metaverse, he added.
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