If you’re a WhatsApp user, you’ll be glad to know that the app has decided to finally incorporate payments as a feature. The messaging service owned by Facebook is utilized by people all over the world. However, this payment feature will be made available first to Brazilian users and is designed to allow people to send and receive money through the app.
According to a blog post released by WhatsApp, this free payment service doesn’t come with any commission fee, making it a revolutionary service in this industry. However, businesses are required to pay a payment receipt fee of 3.99% with each transaction which is protected by either a fingerprint or six-digit-PIN.
To make use of this beneficial digital payment feature, simply connect your WhatsApp account to your Mastercard or Visa card which is possible through Sicredi, Nubank and Banco do Brasil which have partnered with WhatsApp in Brazil through an open model.
It's worth noting that WhatsApp has been working on this payment feature for quite some time with Indian users, using a trial system that utilizes UPI instead of Facebook. Most people assumed that the company would then debut the service in India but they chose Brazil instead.
This is mainly due to regulation difficulties that Facebook ran into in India while trying to expand and launch this payment system. Although India accounts for 400 million monthly active WhatsApp users, Brazil has the second-largest user base with over 120 million monthly active users.
Aside from Paytm and Google Pay, there are no other major competitors to challenge WhatsApp’s establishment in that region.
This is not surprising considering the fact that people in this region have been using WhatsApp for a long time to exchange messages, sell goods as small businesses, and even make product updates. But, since Facebook bought WhatsApp back in 2014 for a whopping $19 billion, the company made it their mission to begin introducing new features and services.
This includes WhatsApp Business which is designed to enable catalog sharing for small business owners where you can even incorporate stock links within the app through Facebook.
With over two billion users and counting, WhatsApp is ripe for becoming a comprehensive service with commercial features that’ll serve a much wider customer base by providing people with an additional feature that further expands their service offering.
Of course, this means adding another income stream for Facebook and WhatsApp that stand to gain a tremendous amount from monetizing the service in this way, through the data and ads amassed through this transaction business model.
This is the same business model behind both Facebook and Instagram which has amassed both services a huge amount of capital.
The company seems to be looking forward to the wide-scale adoption of the WhatsApp payment model across Brazil and beyond, allowing users to make in-chat purchases straight from the app on their smartphones.
The company aims to serve the 10 million SME businesses in Brazil and make it easier for communities to support them. Not only will users be able to view product catalogs from the app but they can buy and make payments right there and then!
