Even though this feature is available only to 20 million users in India at the moment, it is still a terrific step forward.
As we all know, WhatsApp recently found itself in a heap of troubles in India when it updated its privacy policy. It faced a massive backlash on all fronts and saw a majority of its loyal users flock to their rivals like Telegram. Having braved that storm, WhatsApp continues to be the top choice for messaging among the Indians and it now looks to enter a new market - payments.
That’s right, WhatsApp is making its way or rather, has already made its way into the evolving, ever-growing payments market in India with WhatsApp Payments.
Even though this feature is available only to 20 million users in India at the moment, it is still a terrific step forward. The financial landscape in India is changing drastically and the entire ecosystem has given rise to several start-ups in this sector. UPI giants like BHIM, Google Pay, and Paytm have truly revolutionised the way we pay and by the looks of it, it is still not done.
For WhatsApp to join this bandwagon does make sense, after all, who wouldn’t want to tap into the payments vein of an economy that is pegged to touch the trillion-dollar mark this next decade? That said, the question remains - can it survive a healthy competition from the already established giants?
Widespread Adoption, Awareness is the Key
Any gadget user in India will most definitely use WhatsApp. Irrespective of which part of the country you are in, you will find someone or the other in every corner with WhatsApp on his smartphone. However, how many of them do you think would be aware of using all of WhatsApp’s features like live location sharing and document sharing? How many of the 100s of millions of WhatsApp users in India would have used any other feature apart from sending pictures?
One thing that has become quite evident at the moment is the dominance of the big four in the UPI space - BHIM, Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm. These four have been around for a few years now and have been adopted publicly, so much so that India’s digitalised economy has come to rely on these payment methods to get the job done.
In other words, these UPI apps have led the paradigm shift from paying with cash to paying with mobile to such an extent that even sports betting sites in India now accept these options to add money, for example websites like 10Cric.
Lucky for WhatsApp, they were smart enough to realise the current landscape and decided to build their payments ecosystem along those lines. WhatsApp Pay is powered by the BHIM UPI app and its payment partners in India. Money is transferred directly between banks through UPI-based apps, and the entire process is facilitated over WhatsApp messaging system.
That said, people may not be entirely aware that they can make a payment with WhatsApp. Even though it is just as convenient as using any other UPI app, the possible lack of awareness continues to be a hindering factor.
Nonetheless, WhatsApp is just testing waters by the looks of it. Even though it is the most used app in India, it will be tricky to get the millions to use its payment system too, especially after the recent controversy.
However, one thing is certain - there is a lot of potential for WhatsApp to thrive in this space, provided it listens to the people.
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