WhatsApp eyes move into digital payments services

Facebook’s instant messaging app, WhatsApp, is mulling a foray into digital payment services in India, its first such offering globally, and has advertised to hire a digital transactions lead in the country.

A WhatsApp move into digital payments in India, its biggest market that is home to 200 million of its billion plus global users, would replicate similar moves by messaging apps such as Tencent Holdings’ WeChat in China.

WhatsApp is, reportedly, working to launch person-to-person payments in India in the next six months.

A job advertisement on WhatsApp’s website said it was looking for a candidate with a technical and financial background — who understands India’s Unified Payments Interface and the BHIM payments app that enable money transfers and merchant payments using mobile numbers — to be its digital transactions lead for the country.

“India is an important country for WhatsApp, and we’re understanding how we can contribute more to the vision of Digital India,” a WhatsApp spokesman said, referring to a flagship government programme that aims to boost the use of Internet-based services in the country.

“We’re exploring how we might work with companies that share this vision and continuing to listen closely to feedback from our users,” the spokesman said.

Digital transactions in India have surged after Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s shock ban of certain high-value bank notes in November that accounted for more than 80% of the country’s currency in circulation at the time.

In February, WhatsApp’s co-founder Brian Acton told local media that the app was in the early stages of investigating digital payments in the country and that he had talked to the Indian government about the matter.

Just last week, Swedish communications app Truecaller, which has a large user base in India, started a mobile payment service in the country based on the UPI platform.

Meanwhile, French telecommunications company Iliad is aiming to grab a quarter of the Italian mobile market using the same cut-throat prices and straightforward contracts that conquered France, Reuters has reported.

Iliad’s launch in Italy later this year or early 2018 will be its first international foray besides a failed $15bn (€14bn) bid for T-Mobile US and will be a significant test for the French company’s billionaire founder and majority owner Xavier Niel.

Iliad is targeting 10% of the Italian market in the next two to three years, with the aim to eventually reach 25%.

Reuters