WhatsApp mulls digital payments move

Instant messaging app WhatsApp, owned by Facebook Inc, may move into digital payment services in India, its first such offering globally, and it has advertised to hire a digital transactions lead in the country.

A WhatsApp move into digital payments in India, its biggest market that is home to 200 million of its billion- plus global users, would replicate similar moves by messaging apps like Tencent Holdings’ WeChat in China.

WhatsApp is working to launch personto- person payments in India in the next six months, news website The Ken reported earlier on Tuesday, citing unidentified sources.

A job ad on WhatsApp’s website said it was looking for a candidate with a technical and financial background, who also understands India’s Unified Payments Interface ( UPI) and the BHIM payments app that enable money transfers and merchant payments using mobile numbers, to be its digital transactions lead for India.

“India is an important country for WhatsApp, and we’re understanding how we can contribute more to the vision of Digital India,” a WhatsApp spokesman said, referring to a government program to boost the use of Internet- based services.

“We’re exploring how we might work with companies that share this vision and continuing to listen closely to feedback from our users,” the spokesman said.

Digital transactions surged after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ban of certain high- value bank notes in November that accounted for more than 80 percent of the country’s currency in circulation at the time.

In February, WhatsApp’s co- founder, Brian Acton, noted that the app was in early stages of investigating digital payments in the country and that he had talked to the Indian government about the matter.