Meta-owned messaging company Whatsapp has launched a payment feature in Brazil for users to directly pay local business owners through chat.
The company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg made this announcement via a Facebook post, in which he wrote, “People in Brazil will be able to pay local businesses right in a Whatsapp chf. We’ll be rolling this feature out to more businesses in the coming months”.
Meta via an announcement stated that this seamless and secure checkout experience will be a game-changer for people and small businesses looking to buy and sell on WhatsApp without having to go to a website, open another app, or pay in person.
Meta disclosed that the feature has been rolled out to a small number of businesses and will be available to many more in the coming months.
To use this feature, users are mandated to link their Whatsapp account with a valid debit card, credit card, or pre-paid card issued by numerous participating banks.
To accept payments, local business owners can link different service providers to their accounts, as these companies have already created the technical infrastructure for peer-to-peer payment over WhatsApp in Brazil.
Investors King understands that this latest feature rolled out by Whatsapp is part of its strategy to expand its services beyond messaging to create a platform for businesses to connect with customers.
It is also a remarkable step taken towards the integration of e-commerce and social media which is gradually becoming a growing trend.
It is however interesting to note that Whatsapp had originally launched this feature back in 2020 which was unfortunately suspended by Brazil’s Central Bank, ordering Visa and Mastercard to halt payments and transfers via the system.
In a statement, Brazil’s central bank disclosed that it made the decision to preserve an adequate competitive environment in the mobile payments space and to ensure the functioning of a payment system that’s interchangeable, fast, secure, transparent, open, and cheap.
WhatsApp has also rolled out similar payment features in one of its major markets, India. As of April last year, the social media company was granted government approval to offer payment services to millions of users while offering an end-to-end experience with JioMart.