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WhatsApp Likely to Launch Peer-to-Peer Payments in India Within 6 months

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Mobile chat platform WhatsApp could be set to roll out peer-to-peer payments in India, which is home to its largest market with over 200 million users (via TechCrunch).

According to India-based media company The Ken, WhatsApp plans to use a cross-bank payment system called UPI, which is backed by the government, to enable payments between users within the next six months.

WhatsApp has neither confirmed nor denied the claim, but there are precedents for the messaging service to move into mobile payments. During a visit to the country in February, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton met with India's IT minister and said the company was "in the early stages" of exploring how it might incorporate payment systems into the platform.

Last week, Swedish-based phone number lookup service Trucaller introduced user-to-user payments in India via a tie-in with ICICI Bank, which makes use of the same UPI system WhatsApp is said to be integrating.

Facebook has had a payments system in its Messenger app for some time in the U.S., but WhatsApp is far more popular in India and is already being used there as an e-commerce portal despite not yet offering any features that explicitly support the practice.

Samsung launched Samsung Pay in India for select Samsung Galaxy series devices last month, after it partnered up with Axis, HDFC, ICIC, SBI and Standard Chartered banks, and embraced the UPI standard. Apple spoke with the Indian government about introducing Apple Pay back in 2015, while talks with several banks in the country about incorporating the system are said to be ongoing.

Article Link: WhatsApp Likely to Launch Peer-to-Peer Payments in India Within 6 months
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/04/04/whatsapp-payments-india-within-6-months/
MacRumors said:
Samsung launched Samsung Pay in India for select Samsung Galaxy series devices last month, after it partnered up with Axis, HDFC, ICIC, SBI and Standard Chartered banks, and embraced the UPI standard. Apple spoke with the Indian government about introducing Apple Pay back in 2015, while talks with several banks in the country about incorporating the system are said to be ongoing.
Click to expand...

Apple Pay won't make a dent in a country where most citizens don't have a bank account.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sunny1990
LordQ said:
Seems WhatsApp and Facebook won't die anytime soon... ):
Click to expand...
Facebook won't die for at least 10 years. It will have to be a catastrophe for Facebook to die anyway, since Facebook keeps up with the latest trends (coughcoughcoughstories).
 
justperry said:
Apple Pay won't make a dent in a country where most citizens don't have a bank account.
Click to expand...

I don't know the source of your information. However, the real scenario is vastly different.
https://www.google.co.in/amp/www.livemint.com/Specials/vVKbQ0cMmiNbdwOlfd0Z4N/99-Indian-households-are-covered-by-a-bank-account.html?facet=amp&utm_source=googleamp&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=

The reason why Apple Pay won't make much of a difference is because very few people use iPhones, something which Apple is looking to change with their newfound focus on India.
 
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justperry said:
Apple Pay won't make a dent in a country where most citizens don't have a bank account.
Click to expand...
You'd be surprised, with India's just under a billion mobile phone customers, and their almost ubiquitous use of 24/7 IMPS mobile payments service, you can bet WhatsApp (what this article is about), wants a piece of that lucrative pie, and so would Apple for that matter.
 
macs4nw said:
You'd be surprised, with India's just under a billion mobile phone customers, and their almost ubiquitous use of 24/7 IMPS mobile payments service, you can bet WhatsApp (what this article is about), wants a piece of that lucrative pie, and so would Apple for that matter.
Click to expand...


I said Bank account, not through Mobile networks.


g.pulkit said:
Get your facts right my friend:
"99% Indian households are covered by a bank account"
Link: http://www.livemint.com/Specials/vV...households-are-covered-by-a-bank-account.html
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As if I believe an article from a website unknown to me.
How many people are extremely poor in India, those need every cent everyday to survive, no need for a bank account.
 
justperry said:
As if I believe an article from a website unknown to me.
How many people are extremely poor in India, those need every cent everyday to survive, no need for a bank account.
Click to expand...

You can stay ignorant.

Even if we take your word, just 30% of Indian population is more than total population of United States. So, if 30% of Indian population are using Digital Payments, it's equivalent to ~110% of United States population using Digital Payment.
 
Aniruddh said:
You can stay ignorant.

Even if we take your word, just 30% of Indian population is more than total population of United States. So, if 30% of Indian population are using Digital Payments, it's equivalent to ~110% of United States population using Digital Payment.
Click to expand...

I said bank accounts.

And if you are talking about digital payments then still 70% does NOT have a bank account which is close to a billion!
 
justperry said:
I said bank accounts.

And if you are talking about digital payments then still 70% does NOT have a bank account which is close to a billion!
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You said Bank Accounts but the topic is different, it is on Digital Payment.

And sorry, no digital payments != No bank account.
 
Aniruddh said:
You were wrong with facts in your post at #4.
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Yet it was liked by an Indian person, so there is some truth to it.
I saw a program not too long ago about most Indians not having access to banking, is that program wrong then?
[doublepost=1491849465][/doublepost]
Aniruddh said:
You were wrong with facts in your post at #4.
Click to expand...

Only 28%-32% of Indians have access to financial institutions, including post offices and bank, according to data compiled by the banking division of finance ministry, sources said.
Click to expand...

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india...s-worst-hit/story-nC7gjNt8wLsTkOs3HuUXCL.html

This is from November 2016.
 
justperry said:
I saw a program not too long ago about most Indians not having access to banking, is that program wrong then?
Click to expand...

The use of word most makes it factually wrong. The program is initiated to involve everyone into banking system.

justperry said:
Yet it was liked by an Indian person, so there is some truth to it.
Click to expand...

Wow, you have developed a great system to quantify theories. :)
 
Aniruddh said:
The use of word most makes it factually wrong. The program is initiated to involve everyone into banking system.



Wow, you have developed a great system to quantify theories. :)
Click to expand...

;), I know, :p

What about the link I provided, or you just quote what you wanted to quote and leave the rest out of it!
 
justperry said:
;), I know, :p

What about the link I provided, or you just quote what you wanted to quote and leave the rest out of it!
Click to expand...

You edited/merged the post after I started writing.

The link you provided has wrong data, it is comparing total Indian population with number of bank accounts instead it should compare it with number of people over age of 18.

The actual data is here:

http://www.thehindu.com/business/In...-in-three-years-world-bank/article7109166.ece

That was in 2014 before the Pradhanmatri Jandhan Yojna (program to involve everyone to into banking system) started.

UPDATE

And after 2014, government has included 280Mn additional accounts (under PMJDY scheme) till now:

https://www.pmjdy.gov.in/account
 
Aniruddh said:
You edited/merged the post after I started writing.

The link you provided has wrong data, it is comparing total Indian population with number of bank accounts instead it should compare it with number of people over age of 18.

The actual data is here:

http://www.thehindu.com/business/In...-in-three-years-world-bank/article7109166.ece

That was in 2014 before the Pradhanmatri Jandhan Yojna (program to involve everyone to into banking system) started.
Click to expand...

You should read that article, now it might be that there are more accounts than I provided in the link but there are some issues here.

1. Why only take persons older than 18 into account, you know, most teenagers here have bank accounts.

2, in the link you provided it says that many of these accounts are dormant, 43% of accounts are dormant, they are not used or have zero balance on their account.

3. BOLD:
Bank account penetration in India increased from 35 per cent to 53 per cent between 2011 and 2014, but the country also suffers from high dormancy rates, says a World Bank report.

Translated into absolute numbers, this growth in number of bank accounts means that 175 million in India became account holders between 2011 and 2014.

According to the World Bank, the rise in number of bank accounts was to a large extent due to government’s push for financial inclusion.

In August 2014, the Indian government launched Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana scheme for comprehensive financial inclusion with the goal of opening a bank account for every household.

“By the end of January 2015, it had led to the opening of 125 million new bank accounts; as a point of comparison, a 2013 survey had found that fewer than 400 million people in the country had an account,” the report said.

Under the scheme more than 97 per cent of the accounts were opened with the public banks, but around 72 per cent of these accounts show ‘zero balances’

The World Bank report also noted that dormancy rate in India is quite high at 43 per cent and accounts for about 195 million of the 460 million adults with a dormant account around the world.

In sharp contrast, the dormancy rate is as low as 5 per cent in high income economies from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Moreover, only 39 per cent of all account holders in India own a debit or ATM card, and using an account might be inconvenient and time-consuming if every transaction requires using a bank teller.

In India, not only account penetration is comparatively low, at 53 per cent, but so is the use of accounts for payments — mere 15 per cent of adults reported using an account to make or receive payments.
Click to expand...
 
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