NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

After changing text messaging, WhatsApp is about to throw its hat in the digital transaction ring. A UPI -based person-to-person payment feature for both Android and iOS was recently spotted by WhatsApp beta testers in India. The official launch of the feature is likely to boost digital payments in India, considering WhatsApp’s popularity, but will also intensify competition for digital wallets.

WhatsApp has been working on a digital transaction feature since 2017, and the same was spotted at times in the wild. The appearances in the past have been on earlier beta version of the popular messaging application.

WhatsApp commands a strong user base of 250 million across India. Introducing a person-to-person payment feature for all of them gives the messaging application an advantage from the get-go over other digital transaction applications. To put things in context, Paytm has 180 million users in the country, whereas Google Tez, another UPI-based payment application, crossed 12 million users in India last year four months after its launch.

Photo courtesy of Pabak Sarkar.