WhatsApp's UPI-based payment service to reach India in 2020

We all are aware that Facebook's WhatsApp began testing its UPI-based WhatsApp payment service in the country in 2018. It was implemented as a function based on invitations in both Android and iOS applications. Now, almost two years after testing it in India, the instant messaging service can finally reach it to all Indian users, specified Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO during the company's last earnings call.

During the call, Zuckerberg said the company saw significant growth potential for WhatsApp Pay in India since it was introduced to a million users in 2018. "One example that we've been working on is WhatsApp Payments where you're going to be able to send money as quickly and easily as sending a photo. We got approval to test this with 1 million people in India back in 2018," said Zuckerberg.

However, he added that the service might reach all the users in the country and some other countries officially in the next six months. "And when so many of the people kept using it week after week, we knew it was going to be big when we get to launch. I'm really excited about this, and I expect this to start rolling out in a number of countries and for us to make a lot of progress here in the next 6 months," he added during the earnings call.

Facebook is betting heavily on the commerce and payments segment in India and some other countries. Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that one of Facebook's plans is to facilitate more trade from Facebook Market and Instagram purchase, which are also available in India.

"So we're taking a number of different approaches here, ranging from people buying and selling to each other directly to businesses setting up storefronts, to people engaging with businesses directly through messaging and a number of things on payments ranging from existing -- using existing national systems like India's UPI to creating new global systems," the Facebook CEO added.