New Delhi (AFP)
The WhatsApp messaging giant plans to launch its first online payment service this year in India, its largest market with 400 million users, the group said Friday.
WhatsApp, a subsidiary of the social network Facebook, tested this service with a million people last year. But the commercial launch itself has been suspended pending the green light from the banking regulators in India.
The payment service of WhatsApp "makes it easy to pay someone as much as to pass messages," said Will Cathcart, a senior group leader, in a statement.
"We look forward to providing this service to our users this year throughout the country," he said.
India will be the first country to benefit from WhatsApp's payment service. Mr. Cathcart did not say, however, whether the group had been successful in getting the final green light for the launch.
According to him, such services are important to accelerate financial integration in India and enable millions of people to enter the country's fast-growing digital economy.
India is one of the largest economies with the fastest growth and tens of millions of people already use online transaction services.
When WhatsApp launches its service, it will face competition from local online payment companies like Paytm and Phonepe as well as global giants Amazon Pay and Google Pay.
WhatsApp, whose number of users worldwide is estimated at 1.5 billion, has been the subject of controversy in India on the confidentiality of the storage of personal data.
India has insisted that Internet giants store their data on its nationals in India, which WhatsApp has refused so far for its message platform.
The Indian central bank, responsible for regulating the financial system, has also demanded that payment data be stored in the country.
WhatsApp, for its part, said that its payment system will comply with the regulations of the Indian central bank.
© 2019 AFP