Next-Gen Payments

Instant messaging has proved to be the next big thing in the field of communications. WhatsApp is the most popular messaging platform in the world in the present times, with over 700 million active users as of 2016. Over  10% of its user population is from India which has over 70 million active users.

Major economic reforms in India towards the end of 2016 have given birth to a totally new and emerging digital age in the country. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system of payments has been on a constant rise due to applications such as PayTm, Freecharge and BHIM.

WhatsApp, for its 70 million Indian users is planning to introduce UPI based payment system in the next 6 months.  WhatsApp’s payment solution is likely to get support for UPI (Unique Payment Interface) as well and the company is already in talks with the government for the same. UPI allows for instant transfer of funds between two people or a bank account via a Smartphone. “UPI is open to third-party services, making payments is as fast and easy as sending a text message,” read the report.

A WhatsApp spokesperson said, “India is an important country for WhatsApp, and we understand how we can contribute more to the vision of Digital India. We’re exploring how we might work with companies that share this vision and continuing to listen closely to feedback from our users.” Talks have been on about an offline mode in WhatsApp and if this becomes a reality, it would provide an additional advantage to the users.

An update as big as this would mean utmost ease for Indians to make monetary transactions as one will not need multiple digital wallets as most users already have WhatsApp on their smartphones. WhatsApp payments would also result in a tough competition between the UPI based apps which are already ruling the Indian economy. The users can do nothing but wait and watch while the next major update rolls in.