WhatsApp payments feature may be rolled out in full swing by next week: Report

tech2 News StaffMay 29, 2018 20:56:21 IST

Feeling the pressure of its competitors in the digital payments space in India, Facebook may launch a widespread rollout of the UPI-based WhatsApp payments feature by next week.

Representational image. Reuters

WhatsApp that has had the feature ready for a while now has been waiting for its partners ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and the State Bank of India to begin a widespread rollout but have not able to do so yet because of the lack of necessary systems being in place. A report by Bloomberg now states that WhatsApp owners Facebook have decided to bail out on SBI for the moment and will go ahead with three partners to launch the payments feature in full swing.

WhatsApp payments which have been out on Beta since February and then later added a 'request money' feature on an invite basis, will threaten the likes of Paytm and Google Tez who currently fear the sheer number of users WhatsApp boast of in the country. Marketing research company Forrester claims that WhatsApp currently has more than 200 million users on its platform which as per the researcher's estimates, is 20 times higher than Paytm's.

Alibaba-owned Paytm has tried to hold Facebook back earlier, alleging that Facebook-owned WhatsApp's UPI payment platform has security risks for consumers and is not in compliance with the guidelines.