WhatsApp might launch their peer-to-peer payment feature as early as next week. A report from BloombergQuint suggests that the UPI-based in-app payment services will be taken off from its current beta phase and will be rolled out for all the users.
The report states that WhatsApp is partnering with HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank to process payments, and SBI will join the list later once the service is in place.
As of now, the service is available for the Beta testers on Android. As per the reports, the messaging giant was preparing to launch the service officially once they have at least four banking partners, but has now decided to speed up the process as it believes “their rivals were racing ahead”.
Leveraging its large user base, WhatsApp can pose as a serious competitor to the popular digital wallets and payment apps like Paytm, Google Tez, PhonePe and so on. When the existing solutions are compared, Paytm recorded a huge 200 million user base in February 2018 and the rest are still fairly new in the race. So, it’s a good time and opportunity for WhatsApp to foray into the league and make the most out of its user base. With over 200 million monthly active users, WhatsApp surely poses as a solid threat to its rivals.
It would be interesting to see how WhatsApp cracks into the payment space without affecting the seamless messaging experience. If the service is easy to adapt and is efficient at what it’s supposed to do, we think there’s a huge scope of success for the company.
