If a new report has to be taken into account, WhatsApp may be planning to use its platform for peer-to-peer payments in India. The Facebook owned company will use Indian government backed UPI, a cross-bank payment system to enable WhatsApp contacts to pay each other.
This may happen within next six months as per the report posted by Ken, an India-based subscription media company. WhatsApp has to say this in its official statement released to TechCrunch.
“India is an important country for WhatsApp, and we’re understanding how we can contribute more to the vision of Digital India. We’re exploring how we might work with companies that share this vision and continuing to listen closely to feedback from our users,” WhatsApp told TechCrunch in a statement.
While this is not a direct admission of future plans, it does hint about something in works. WhatsApp has earlier revealed its interest in incorporating payments services. Companies like TrueCaller and Facebook Messenger have already incorporated such services into their platform.
But in India, where WhatsApp is wildly popular with over 200 million users, this may be a very big step in bringing easy cross-bank payments to the common users. One can imagine the ease in which payments can be send and received just by using WhatsApp, if it materializes.
Via: TC
