The National Payments Corporation of India, the payments body that oversees the widely popular UPI instrument, has given approval to WhatsApp to extend its payments service to 100 million users in the South Asian market, a person familiar with the matter said. WhatsApp was previously allowed to rollout WhatsApp Pay to 40 million users in the world’s second largest internet market.
WhatsApp rolled out its payments service in India in 2020, but the Meta-owned service has struggled to aggressively expand the offering to a larger base in India because of regulatory pushback. The NPCI has instead insisted on WhatsApp rolling out the payments service in step-by-step phases, a person familiar with the matter said.
In a statement, NPCI confirmed that WhatsApp has been approved to rollout the service to an additional 60 million users.
“National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has approved an additional sixty (60) million users on UPI for WhatsApp. With this approval, WhatsApp will be able to expand the service to its hundred(100) million users,” a spokesperson said.
This is a developing story. More to follow…
