WhatsApp digital payments fails to draw users in India

WhatsApp has failed to make its ambitious peer-to-peer digital payments services, which went live in India in November 2020, a success. WhatsApp Payments is still restricted to a cap of some 20 million users in the country.

Initially, it faced regulatory roadblocks and data compliance issues with the Reserve Bank of India, finally got the nod from the National Payments Corporation of India, and went live with the UPI payment service in India in November last year.

According to the latest NPCI data, WhatsApp currently has a mere 0.01% share of the UPI payments volume. Major UPI players in India currently are PhonePe, IPO-bound Paytm, and Google Pay. PhonePe continues to dominate transactions, with almost half the market size at 47%, followed by Google Pay at 35%.

Pavan Duggal, one of the nation’s top cyber law experts, told IANS that WhatsApp Payments needs to be seen with a microscopic eye, primarily because in payment dealings there is sensitive personal data and cyber security is going to be an essential building block component for the platform to demonstrate its due diligence.

Prabhu Ram, Head, Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CyberMedia Research (CMR), said that for India, WhatsApp has been the de facto messaging app of choice for a long time. “Leveraging WhatsApp’s reach and scale in other spheres, such as mobile payments, would seem an easy and natural step forward for the platform. However, WhatsApp’s strong brand resonance around messaging is hindering its uptick in payments.”

It should be noted that WhatsApp Payments has a case pending in the Supreme Court for compliance of data localization as per the RBI’s April 2018 circular. The RBI and NPCI are constantly evaluating the risk of allowing social media apps into the digital payment ecosystem.

Not to be pulled back by the case, WhatsApp on Thursday launched the Indian rupee symbol in its chat composer in an effort to make sending payments via its platform easier for users in India. The company said that the latest updates will help payments on WhatsApp become more inclusive and intuitive.

Manesh Mahatme, Director (Payments), WhatsApp India, during the Global Fintech Festival (GFF) 2021, said Bharat needs simple solutions that remove the friction to learn ‘How to Pay’, an inclusive product that is simple, relatable and easy to access for rural and urban users alike, and a platform like WhatsApp that they can trust, to drive adoption. Mahatma added that the company is scaling up in a phased manner right now and partnering with the NPCI to work through this scale.

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However, Prabhu pointed out that for WhatsApp to succeed in a hyper-competitive digital economy, the platform will need to invest in understanding evolving consumer perceptions and leverage that for creating user awareness and understanding around new WhatsApp use cases.