Mark Zuckerberg Optimistic About Launching WhatsApp Pay In India Soon
WhatsApp Pay with a million users has been in the beta mode in India for about 20 months, awaiting approval from RBI.
Facebook Inc. expects to launch its long-delayed WhatsApp payments service in India soon as it looks to join a crowded market.
“We’re very optimistic that we’re going to able to launch to everyone in India soon,” Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer at WhatsApp’s parent Facebook, told analysts during a third-quarter earnings call.
WhatsApp Pay with a million users has been in the beta mode in India for about 20 months, awaiting approval from the Reserve bank of India. The delay stems from compliance with India’s local data storage requirement.
WhatsApp’s Global Head Will Cathcart, during his India visit, had said the company expects to luanch the payments services this year. With more than 300 million users, the service is touted to be the next big disruption in the nation’s payments industry.
Amazon Pay, Google Pay, Paytm and PhonePe are already battling to win customers in the market which, according to a report by investment bank Credit Suisse Group AG, is expected to grow fivefold to $1 trillion by 2023.
Meanwhile, Facebook reported better-than-expected sales and user growth in the quarter ended September. Its daily active users reached 1.62 billion, up 9 percent over a year earlier, led by growth in India, Indonesia and the Philippines.