The National Payments Corporation of India has permitted WhatsApp to extend payment services. This service is available to 40 mn Indian users, double of its current cap of 20 million users.
Challenges
WhatsApp had requested no cap on users for its payment services. It has been working on its payment services for quite some time. It faced several compliance hurdles in data storage and localisation norms. WhatsApp then, did beta testing for a while before going live in November last year
Permission for 40 million users
WhatsApp Pay is currently available to only 20 million users in India. Now that the messaging app has got the nod from NPCI, the user base will get doubled. WhatsApp had requested the government to remove the cap on users of its payment service in India. But NPCI has given permission to expand the services to 40 million users instead of just 20 million.
When WhatsApp came up with its payments feature, it had the idea to take on Google Pay, Paytm and other popular payments apps. WhatsApp has the largest user base in India. But things didn’t happen as planned and the NPCI cap was responsible for the feature not reaching as many people as expected by WhatsApp. The payment service feature is built on The National Payments Corporation of India’s UPI.
