WhatsApp Pay is a UPI-based payments service that has been available in India for some time now. The payment service on the Meta-owned messaging platform offers its users cashback to expand its user base. Initially, the company offered a cashback of Rs 11 on each of the first three payments made to different contacts using UPI on the app. Now, the company has announced other new cashback offers. To attract more people to use WhatsApp Pay in the country, the company is now offering a total of Rs 105 cashback for payments done using the app. WhatsApp Pay users will now get a cashback of Rs 35 each for their next three payments. Moreover, there’s no limit to the amount as users can get Rs 35 cashback even if they send Re 1 through WhatsApp Pay. However, the company has mentioned that this is a “limited time offer” and will be available only for “select customers”.
How to use WhatsApp Pay
Users will need a bank account that is synced with their current mobile number to use WhatsApp Pay, just like any other UPI-based app. The messaging service app now has a ‘Payments’ section where users can add their bank accounts to the UPI service. The app will then verify the same by sending a message to the user’s bank. Users can make payments on WhatsApp to their contacts, a UPI ID or by scanning a merchant QR code only after the bank account has been set up in the WhatsApp account.
Importance of WhatsApp’s cashback scheme
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has recently cleared WhatsApp Pay to expand its user base from 40 million to 100 million. This approval has provided the messaging platform with a certain impetus to build new products and market the payment service to consumers.
Multiple payment apps have deployed and relied upon the strategy of offering cashback to attract more consumers into using their platform. These apps include — Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay and Amazon Pay among others that have all deployed extensive cashback schemes in the initial phases of their expansion.
How will it help WhatsApp?
According to the NPCI clearance. WhatsApp can now add 60 million users to its UPI service. This will help the messaging platform’s payment service to compete with major rivals like — PhonePe and Google Pay which dominate the majority of the UPI transactions. However, the NPCI has ensured that WhatsApp’s ability to gain an upper hand over its rivals is limited as the messaging app has over 500 million users. If WhatsApp starts offering its payment service to all the users at once, it could impact the competition. Meanwhile, the company has also asked for NPCI’s approval to expand its payments to all users without a limit.
Manesh Mahatme, Director of payments, WhatsApp India, has said that the company has been working to deliver a simple, reliable and secure experience for its users since it got the initial approval from NPCI. He even added that WhatsApp is expected to accelerate the adoption of UPI for the next five hundred million Indians.
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