Gamechanger for Digital Payments? WhatsApp Gets Green Signal To Go Live With UPI Service

The National Payments Corporation of India said that the NPCI has given approval for WhatsApp payment system to Go Live in India.

WhatsApp users, now you will also be able to pay through the instant messaging platform! The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has given a green signal to WhatsApp to launch the UPI-based payment system. The instant messaging platform has been testing the payment method for two years, but the case was pending regarding privacy.

Facebook was constantly in talks with the Government of India to launch the payment system on WhatsApp. However, it has now been finally approved. A press note was released on Thursday by the National Payments Corporation of India. It said that the NPCI has given approval for WhatsApp payment system to Go Live in India.

Payment Models Allowed to Make Live Phase Wise

According to this, phase wise permission has been given to live the payment model of social messaging app. That is, it will be made live in many different phases. Initially the company has been allowed to have 20 million UPI user base, but later it will be expanded to graded manor.

Tougher competition for PayTM

With the introduction of this service, Paytm, Google Pay and Phone Pe will get a tough competition in the digital payment market. Currently there are more than 45 third party apps offering UPI based payments services including Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Flipkart and Phone Pe. Apart from this 140 banks like Paytm Payments Bank, Airtel Payments Bank and Axis Bank also offer these services.

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has been consistently opposing WhatsApp. He said that this service is not safe for the user and there is a risk of fraud. India is the largest market for WhatsApp with more than 400 million active users in India.