WhatsApp Introduces New Feature Enabling Users to Send Money, Make Payments

WhatsApp has introduced a new payment feature that will enable users to send money without exiting the chat.

The service will first be rolled out in Brazil after successfully testing it in India.

It is the first time the service is being rolled out in any part of the world, as the app joins in the efforts to help businesses accept digital money.

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said he is working with local banks in Brazil, including Banco do Brasil, Nubank, Sicredi as well as Cielo, the leading payments processor for merchants in Brazil.

“Today we are starting to launch payments for people using WhatsApp. We are making sending and receiving money as easy as sharing photos. We are also enabling small businesses to make sales right within WhatsApp,” Zuckerberg said through a Facebook update.

Zuckerberg added that the company was building on Facebook Pay, which provides a secure and consistent way to make payments across its apps.

With the seamless integration between Facebook business and WhatsApp, the company is making it easier for shoppers to complete transactions on the social media network without being re-directed to external websites.

The Facebook-owned app has unleashed a first just as Facebook announced the development of Shops on its platform, allowing users to add items to cart and check-out on the business pages.

In a report released by Facebook last month, 31 percent of small and medium-sized businesses had shut down since March, and more businesses, especially small personal businesses were at risk of shutting down within the next few months.

Since then, Facebook has started developing Shops and is also testing an email feature to help small businesses market their products to their contacts. The introduction of the payment gateway on WhatsApp will also help generate more revenue as shoppers will not have to go off the app to complete their shopping.

Facebook business and WhatsApp can be integrated for communication support as well as a marketing extension whereby businesses run the same ads that they run on their page on WhatsApp.

WhatsApp has over 120 million individual users in Brazil, its second-largest market behind India.

Many of Brazil’s small businesses already use WhatsApp as a marketing tool to answer questions or send catalogs.

“Over 10 million small and micro-businesses are at the heartbeat of Brazil’s communities. It’s become second nature to send a zap to business to get questions answered. Now in addition to viewing a store’s catalog, customers will be able to send payments for products as well.” The company wrote in a blog post.

Businesses will pay a processing fee to receive customer payments, similar to what they may already pay when accepting a credit card transaction.