WhatsApp has been trying for a long time become a mobile payment method plus. The service tried to start its activity in Brazil months ago, but the authorities stopped that ambition to investigate its potential dominant position in the market.
Now said authorities they have given the go-ahead to those payments via WhatsApp, but users will not be able to use them to pay in stores: it will only be allowed to send money from person to person.
Promising, but with a (perhaps too) significant limitation
In WhatsApp they are clear that the launch of this service makes special sense in the countries where they have more users. Brazil is its second largest market (120 million users), and although the Central Bank of this country ended up ordering the suspension of that capacity, now the authorities have ended up giving the go-ahead to this type of transaction.
WhatsApp will therefore allow a user to send money to another user through this instant messaging service. For this both users must have a Visa or Mastercard associated with the service, and in fact both entities have had to provide new guarantees to be able to operate in Brazil through WhatsApp.
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Although permission has already been given for those mobile payments between people to take effect, there is a major catch: WhatsApp users will not be able to make purchases and payments in stores, a limitation that of course reduces the scope of this service significantly. Facebook appears to be trying to make that limitation go away in the future.
Still, the platform thus aspires to become in a kind of “Bizum of the courier”And maybe after Brazil and India – another huge market where they are activating it – WhatsApp wants to expand this option to users around the world.
A WhatsApp spokesperson indicated that the deployment of this option will be done “as soon as possible” in Brazil, and it will be interesting to see the evolution of a service that certainly has enormous potential.
Via | Reuters
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