WhatsApp Rolls Out Much-Awaited Payments Feature In Brazil

Following months of trials and discussions, WhatsApp has finally rolled out the payments feature in its app. Currently an exclusive for Brazil, users will be able to send money to their loved ones or shopkeepers using the Facebook-owned app, Facebook Pay.

WhatsApp users in Brazil can now send money to friends and family or pay a business right from your chat pic.twitter.com/BwrcCq9CJW

— WhatsApp Inc. (@WhatsApp) June 15, 2020

The payments service — which is free for consumers to use (that is, no commission charged) will require the businesses to pay a processing fee to receive payments and will be secured by a six-digit PIN or fingerprint.

“The over 10 million small and micro businesses are the heartbeat of Brazil’s communities. It’s become second nature to send a zap to a business to get questions answered. Now in addition to viewing a store’s catalog, customers will be able to send payments for products as well. Making payments simple can help bring more businesses into the digital economy, opening up new opportunities for growth,” said WhatsApp in a blog post.

Currently, the app supports debit and credit cards from Banco do Brasil, Nubank, and Sicredi on the Visa, Mastercard networks, and is in talks with Cielo, the leading payments processor in Brazil. 

The long-awaited payments feature was speculated to be launched in India, the world’s second-largest Internet market, and Facebook’s biggest market.

“In the future we want to make it possible for people and businesses to use the same card information across Facebook’s family of apps,” the blog read indicating the same feature could be rolled out for Instagram, another Facebook-owned platform.

Messaging platform WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion and the payments feature has huge potential considering WhatsApp’s 2 billion strong userbase.