WhatsApp’s Payments Have Started To Roll Out To Users

For a while now, Facebook has been trying to figure out a way to monetize WhatsApp. The company acquired WhatsApp several years ago in what some called one of the most expensive acquisitions in tech, but to date, Facebook has yet to charge users to use the service (although the idea of introducing ads has been floated in the past).

However, it looks like Facebook might finally have an idea on how to monetize the platform, and that is through a payments service where the company will be charging businesses a 3.99% processing fee for payments made through the platform.

Now, the concept of WhatsApp payments isn’t new. WhatsApp has introduced a similar feature in India a while ago, but this new option will actually be using a different payments platform in the form of Facebook Pay which launched late last year. With this new service, users will be able to link their credit cards to their WhatsApp accounts where they can then make payments to businesses through the platform.

At the moment, the feature is being rolled out in Brazil, but according to the company, they will be eventually making it available to their other users around the world. Whether or not this will be good enough to compete against the likes of PayPal remains to be seen, but given that WhatsApp already supports business accounts, this is actually a rather logical step forwards.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Apps, Facebook, Whatsapp