Sending and receiving money on Whatsapp has long been rumored to be in the works with the closest to this coming to fruition being payment tests in India. Facebook is said to have encountered regulatory issues and the spot was snubbed by Brazil, where the Facebook-owned Whatsapp just launched the feature.
In a post shared by Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, he went on to introduce the Whatsapp payments feature, going on to say that it will be as simple as sharing photos on the platform.
“Today we’re starting to launch payments for people using WhatsApp in Brazil. We’re making sending and receiving money as easy as sharing photos. We’re also enabling small businesses to make sales right within WhatsApp.”
The payment feature will be powered by Facebook Pay, which is also said to support other Facebook-owned apps with a secure and consistent way of making payments. Zuck goes on to add that the feature will help SMEs to make sales within Whatsapp but judging by the photo above, individual payments will also be supported.
Facebook partnered with local Brazilian banks like Banco do Brasil, Nubank, Sicredi, and payments processor, Cielo with a promised roll-out to other countries. We anticipate Facebook will use a similar technique in other countries and hopefully, when the service is to launch here, they will consider mobile money.
Will Whatsapp Payments be free?
Reuters reports that Whatsapp payments will be free for individual users whereas businesses will be charged for receiving payments. A similar technique is employed by our local telecommunications for their Mobile Payments services like MTN’s MoMoPay.
