WhatsApp may launch a peer-to-peer payment system in India and is likely to be powered by the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which is a cross-bank payment system backed by the Indian government. Peer-to-peer transactions are electronic money transfers made from one person to another through a P2P payment application.
This move should enable payments between the 200 million users in India within the next six months. According to the report, WhatsApp announced a payment system integrated in the app would be a significant update and could open up new use cases. The company has about 1.2 billion active users across the globe.
Facebook had added payments to its Messenger app some time ago in the U.S., but such a feature in WhatsApp could be far more game changing in India, where Messenger is less popular. WeChat also has a peer-to-peer payment system which already online in Malaysia. However it does not have any bank support. WhatsApp has become a favourite for online merchants to interact with their buyers, so this could be the next step.
What do you think? Would you like to see this feature in Malaysia? Let me know in the comments below.
