Facebook has been given the green light to launch WhatsApp payments in India after a number of regulatory delays.
The National Payments Corporation of India and Reserve Bank of India both granted their approval on the proviso that Facebook would agree to store user data associated with the app within India. The service allows WhatsApp users to make peer-to-peer payments of small amounts.
While nationwide availability will only be approved once Facebook has met the stipulated conditions, the service will be made available to 10 million Indian users in its initial launch. Facebook has been beta testing the service since February 2018, and has on several occasions indicated that it was ready to launch the offering.
However, disputes over the location of data storage have postponed the launch several times, allowing similar payment services to gain market share. These have included Amazon, Google, Hike and Paytm – all of which were in line with the relevant data storage regulations.
