3 days ago
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India has removed restrictions on WhatsApp’s mobile payments service in a significant victory for Meta in its largest market by users as it seeks to compete with entrenched fintech rivals.
The National Payments Corporation of India, the payments body overseeing the popular UPI payments network, said Tuesday that WhatsApp can now roll out WhatsApp Pay to all its users in India. WhatsApp has more than 500 million users in India.
The decision lifts the previous 100 million user cap on WhatsApp Pay. The move signals a shift in the regulator’s cautious approach to WhatsApp’s payments ambitions. NPCI, which reports to India’s central bank, had previously insisted on a gradual rollout, first limiting the service to 40 million users in 2020 before extending it to 100 million in 2022.
WhatsApp’s expansion comes as India’s UPI platform, which processes more than 13 billions of transactions monthly, faces increased scrutiny over market concentration. Google Pay and Walmart-backed PhonePe currently control more than 85% of UPI transactions.
This is breaking news. More to follow.
Manish Singh is a senior reporter at TechCrunch, covering India’s startup scene and venture capital investments. He also reports on global tech firms’ India play. Before joining TechCrunch in 2019, Singh wrote for about a dozen publications, including CNBC and VentureBeat. He graduated in Computer Science and Engineering in 2015. He is reachable on manish(at)techcrunch(dot)com.
