Highlights:
- WhatsApp launches payments in Brazil after testing the feature in India
- Brazil is the first country to have received this feature
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed it in a blog post
WhatsApp has launched its digital payment features after months of speculations and rumors from all over the globe. The company which tested the feature in India for more than 2 years has made a global debut in Brazil.
Facebook’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg, in a blog post, revealed that this feature has been rolled out in Brazil.
Facebook, in the blog post, said, “We’re excited to announce that starting today we’re bringing digital payments to WhatsApp users in Brazil. People will be able to send money securely or make a purchase from a local business without leaving their chat,”. The company added that it is building Facebook Pay which will offer the users a secure and more consistent platform to make payments across all the applications which are owned by Facebook.
The blog also read, “In addition, we’re making sending money to loved ones as easy as sending a message, which could not be more important as people are physically distant from one another. Because payments on WhatsApp are enabled by Facebook Pay, in the future we want to make it possible for people and businesses to use the same card information across Facebook’s family of apps,”.
Facebook further added that while it was developing the Payments feature, security was held paramount importance. The payment method on the messaging app, WhatsApp, will support different authentication modes which will include a special 6 digit PIN or even fingerprint which would further restrict any unauthorized access to the application.
WhatsApp blog read, “To start, we will support debit or credit cards from Banco do Brasil, Nubank, and Sicredi on the Visa and Mastercard networks -and we are working with Cielo, the leading payments processor in Brazil. We have built an open model to welcome more partners in the future. Sending money or making a purchase on WhatsApp is free for people. Businesses will pay a processing fee to receive customer payments, similar to what they may already pay when accepting a credit card transaction,”.
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The testing of the payments feature in India began back in 2018 by Facebook. The feature was available as a beta version for more than 2 years and there were rumors surrounding the features that the company could launch in May 2020.
Previously it was reported that the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has granted WhatsApp permission to formally begin with the payment services in the country, albeit, in a phased manner.
The Facebook-owned messaging app, WhatsApp, had even collaborated with ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and HDFC Bank to make the feature available in India.
