India Unleashes WhatsApp Pay, Challenging Fintech Giants

"WhatsApp Pay expands in India, challenging Google Pay and PhonePe."
Matilda
India Unleashes WhatsApp Pay, Challenging Fintech Giants
In a significant development for Meta and a potential game-changer for India's digital payments landscape, the Indian government has lifted restrictions on WhatsApp Pay. This move allows WhatsApp to expand its payment service to its entire user base of over 500 million in the country, marking a major victory for the social media giant in its largest market. Breaking Down the Barriers Previously, WhatsApp Pay's growth was constrained by a user cap imposed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the regulatory body overseeing the country's popular instant payments system, Unified Payments Interface (UPI). This cap, initially set at 40 million users in 2020, was later increased to 100 million in 2022. The removal of this cap signals a shift in the regulator's stance towards WhatsApp's ambitions in the Indian payments market. This decision comes amidst growing concerns about market concentration within the UPI ecosystem, where Google Pay and Walmart-backed P…