Facebook-owned messaging giant WhatsApp has finally rolled out its payments feature in Brazil, two years after it beta tested the feature in India. The feature allows WhatsApp’s individual and business users to send and receive money from the app itself. WhatsApp has over 120 million users in Brazil, its second-largest market after India. Facebook is also currently behind developing Libra cryptocurrency. However, in recent months Facebook had tried to distance away from the project, unlike before when it was leading the crypto project.
The feature is enabled via Facebook Pay.
The payments feature is enabled via Facebook Pay, and transactions are processed via Cielo, Brazil-based payments processor. Users can initiate payments using a supported debit or credit card. WhatsApp currently supports Visa, and Mastercard cards from Banco do Brasil, Nubank, and Sicredi. The payment feature is free for individuals, while businesses will have to shell out a processing fee of 3.99% to receive payments. Transactions on WhatsApp are secured via a six-digit PIN or fingerprint. Currently, Facebook pay is live in many countries, including the USA and UK.
“The feature makes sending and receiving money as easy as sharing photos.”
The Chief Executive Officer and founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg said that this feature makes sending and receiving money as easy as sharing a picture. Since WhatsApp payments are enabled via Facebook Pay, it appears that the feature would be launched in other countries as well where Facebook Pay is currently live, including the US and the UK. The messaging giant has been beta testing the payment system in India since 2018, where it has the largest number of users in the world. That trial of the payment system was enabled via Unified Payments Interface (UPI), an instant real-time payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India. Facebook is also behind developing Libra stablecoin that is intended to launch before the start of next year.
