[blackwasp]

After facing regulatory hurdles and courtroom battles for months, WhatsApp has received the approval in India to go live with a payment feature on its messaging platform using the Unified Payments Interface.

The National Payment Corp of India’s clearance for WhatsApp Pay limits the number of users who can use the feature on the platform to 20 million in the first phase. Facebook-owned WhatsApp has about 400 million users in India.

The NPCI’s approval came on the same day it limited the transactions a third-party app like WhatsApp Pay can carry out to 30% of the total volume on the UPI network. The move is expected to allay fears of regulatory authorities including the Reserve Bank of India over potential monopoly risks.

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WhatsApp, which began testing its payments service in India with 1 million users in early 2018, has finally started to expand the feature to more users in the world’s second largest internet market.

The Facebook -owned service said Friday that it is rolling out payments in ten Indian regional languages in the latest stable version of WhatsApp app on Android and iOS. The announcement comes hours after National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the body that operates the popular UPI payments infrastructure, said that it had granted approval to WhatsApp to roll out UPI-powered payments in the country.

Like Google, Samsung and a number of other firms, WhatsApp has built its payments service atop UPI, a payments infrastructure built by a coalition of large banks in India. NPCI said WhatsApp, which has amassed over 400 million users in India, can expand payments to its users in a “graded manner,” and to start with, it can only roll out the payments service to 20 million users and has to work with multiple banking partners. (WhatsApp said today it is working with five leading banks in India: ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, the State Bank of India, and Jio Payments Bank.)

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Here are answers to some essential questions that might be on your mind:
How can I get started with WhatsApp Payments and how do I send and receive money?
WhatsApp Payments runs on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform. It allows users to transfer money instantly, directly between bank accounts. There is no need to create a wallet separately.

All you need is a debit card, open WhatsApp, click on 'Payments' in the attachment segment, authenticate yourself with the debit card number, create a UPI handle and generate a UPI pin. That’s it and you are good to go. Do remember the card that you use, as future transactions will happen from that bank account.

Also read: WhatsApp Pay goes live on UPI; available in 10 regional languages
When can I get started?
If you are among the one million users who signed up for the beta-testing app, you are already on. Others can sign up from November 6.

How does it work?
Get on to the chat window with the person whom you need to transfer money to. Click on ‘attachments’, select ‘payments’, enter the amount to be transferred and authenticate using the UPI pin.

Just make sure that the receiver has updated the app to receive UPI payments.
Even if the receiver does not use WhatsApp Payments, you can still send money to any UPI ID the person might have, as UPI is interoperable.

What are the other UPI IDs that one can have?
Anything will work whether it is with Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, or any of the 189 banks that can issue UPI handles. Typically a user’s UPI ID is designed like an email ID: unique identifier@bank handle. UPI is a direct settlement between bank accounts and does not require a separate mobile wallet to be created.

Which are the banks WhatsApp is working with?
Consumers having an account with any of the 189 banks can use UPI. WhatsApp is working with five banks—State Bank of India, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Jio Payments Bank—and will issue handles with any one of these banks.

How will the 20-million user limit work?
One million people are already using WhatsApp Payments, for them it will continue normally. Now 19 million new users can join the platform. Once the 20 million limit is reached, WhatsApp will have to stop onboarding new users. However, NPCI is expected to extend the limit after due consideration.

Can I use WhatsApp to shop on Amazon or Flipkart?
Yes, one can use the WhatsApp payment handle to shop as well but, as of now, these integrations are not there. Eventually, WhatsApp Payments, like GPay, will be seen as a payment option during checkout.

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[GrammarNazi]

Overall convenience - Great to have ? YES!
Game-changer ? Nope.

The existing G-Pay & Phone-Pe apps have a message feature where one can quote Order Number / Confirm Product & pay for stuff. Also, some people use WhatsApp casually & keep another Phone with UPI-Linked number.

Infact, those few moments it takes to shift to the other UPI Apps makes one think about the authenticity of the other person. IMO important to be careful of scammers who could may extract info from naive people through WA.

Anyway, they'd have surely thought this through too. Lets see.

[Tgo]

How come Data Miners are so interested in Payment Apps these days?

I'm guessing India has the highest number of methods in which one can transfer money.

[anandhsub]

Interesting that they launched it just as NPCI said any one UPI app should at max handle 30% of all transactions.

I use only GPay for UPI but if that doesn't work properly post this 30% limit will definitely use whatsapp payments. Currently need to pay on GPay and take a screenshot and send on whatsapp. Those 3 steps will become 1.

[Abbas]

I don't understand what's the big fuss about. I have been using whatsapp pay since almost 2 years now. It has a max limit of 5000 per transaction.

Does this new roll out mean, the transaction limit has been increased or what? Because I don't see any changes yet.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by anandhsub

Interesting that they launched it just as NPCI said any one UPI app should at max handle 30% of all transactions.

I read that statement in the news but cannot interpret what exactly it means. Can you please elaborate on this?

Thanks.

[skumare]

Originally Posted by saket77

I read that statement in the news but cannot interpret what exactly it means. Can you please elaborate on this?

Any one provider (Gpay/Phonepe/Paytm/WA etc) cannot have more than 30% volume of UPI traffic, whether it is 30% customers/transactions/amount is yet to be clarified. The whole process needs to be defined on how the 30% restriction will be imlemented, bit in principle this is to derisk the platform.

[GTO]

I think yes, it will be a gamechanger simply because:

- Everyone who has a smartphone in India has WhatsApp. It's pretty much the default messaging tool. However, only the relatively tech savvy have a dedicated UPI-payment app (I still don't).

- Knowing WhatsApp & their love for simplicity, sending payments will be easy as pie.

On a related note, am wondering if Facebook's recent tie-up and investments in Jio had something to do with the sudden government approval . Must have been a single call from Reliance to the right person in Delhi!

[Sen]

Google pay is so glitchy and slow these days. I migrated over to Phonepe and am usually done paying by the time Google pay even fully loads.

WhatsApp Payment is definitely slower than a Phonepe transaction.

Let's see how this all plays out with the 30% limiter. It's like back in the day where we used to have 10,000 sms messages as a limit per month, which was brought down to 100 a day.

[2000rpm]

Why are the UPI payments not allowing CC payments? Any idea?

Will whatsapp allow to link a CC instead of a Debit card?

A lot of people dont realize that they are letting go a lot of CC points while using GPAY.

[logicalidiot]

I actually do think it will be a game changer.

Whatsapp is at the forefront for communication in India whether be it business or personal usage. With the added UPI feature, it's a great boon for individuals in making cash transactions. I see many people confirming any amount paid through Google Pay/Phonepe on WhatsApp. Now it has just become easier. If WhatsApp adds rewards/cashback for payments like Phonepe or Google Pay, then there is no looking back.

Originally Posted by 2000rpm

Will whatsapp allow to link a CC instead of a Debit card?

A lot of people dont realize that they are letting go a lot of CC points while using GPAY.

I think it said it would use Debit card number to authenticate or link your bank account and create a UPI handle. I've seen some banks requesting debit card number for verification to set up UPI on Google Pay.

The UPI's main purpose or functionality is paying directly through your bank account. It's more like a replacement for Online Transfer of funds. I don't see the payment option of Debit/Credit option being added to it ever. It would defeat the purpose and would deviate from what it is invented for.

[anujmishra]

WhatsApp payment when introduced in India will be game changer as growth of existing UPI apps are stagnated and beyond a certain number, it is increasing at snail's pace. Certainly it will add new set of users.

Being in Payment industry for last 4-5 years and worked for one of the first Payment apps with UPI which helped NPCI to stabilize UPI operation, I certainly says WhatsApp will have kind of reach which everyone is looking for.

The major contention with government was with RBI's data localization policy introducs 3 years ago for all payment related data to be stored in India data centres. This was not an easy task to handle as being WhatsApp as global behemoth, all of their data was stored in foreign locations.

There must be considerable change happened in this beta phase for WhatsApp Payment, where they must have tried to move all *required* and *related* payment data to be stored in India.

Some 2 million select users are alerady using WhatsApp Pay Beta (Including myself) for past 2 years. Existing functionality has some restricted usage due to beta norms.

[fordday]

Originally Posted by GTO

On a related note, am wondering if Facebook's recent tie-up and investments in Jio had something to do with the sudden government approval . Must have been a single call from Reliance to the right person in Delhi!

I would like to think that WhatsApp pay was prevented/barred from operation by Delhi+Reliance all this time, till they said 'yes' to Reliance proposal.

Originally Posted by Sen

Google pay is so glitchy and slow these days. I migrated over to Phonepe and am usually done paying by the time Google pay even fully loads.

Another problem is GPay gets stuck midway.

Case 1: I tried to pay Rs 195 to the sweetmeat shop and GPay debited from my account but could not confirm the credit to shopkeeper account. After waiting for 10 mins when it was still showing "payment processing", I paid in cash and left. After four days GPay confirmed that the transaction is completed and money credited to shopkeeper account.

Now when I tried to raise a dispute, GPay asks for my bank account statement and (hold your breath) the shopkeeper's bank account statement. I let it go there. Luckily it was a meagre amount.


Case 2: I paid my local Kirana shop an amount of Rs 1600. First time it went on to "payment processing". Tried paying again. Again it went to "payment processing". Finally paid by credit card. Before leaving told him that tried twice with Gpay and it may come to his account later.

After a week, both the Gpay transactions were completed. Luckily I was a regular at the Kirana guy and he acknowledged the triple payment and adjusted it later.

[gb97ce6]

It will be a godsend for all small businesses that rely on one to one communication rather than online payments. You can have the entire trail of messages plus payments all in one single window to track which makes Whatsapp the ultimate tool for smal service oriented businesses.

[nishsingh]

I believe it will be a game changer .
This is because there are so many family groups that I am a part of. I would rather send my younger cousins a token Rs 101/- birthday wish than just a simple "Happy Birthday" GIF.

Similarly, I believe it would be much easier to collect and track all the money that we typically have for the Sunday cricket match ground booking or splitting the dinner/lunch amount amongst friends.

I believe this is kind of like "The one App to rule them all"