Meta
Platforms is expanding the WhatsApp payment options available in India. It’s a sign the social-media company is looking for ways to make more money from the messaging application which could be rolled out to its global userbase.
Meta
(ticker: META) said Wednesday that it would enable credit card payments and other services from rival companies within WhatsApp in India, which is the largest single market for the chat app.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last year that business messaging would be “the next major pillar” for the company overall. Meta doesn’t break out financial results for WhatsApp –which it acquired for $19 billion in 2014– but the company has been pushing its potential as a communication channel between businesses and their customers for years.
Expanding WhatsApp as a payments channel as well could boost the app’s profits, as businesses will have greater incentive to pay Meta for access to its users.
Currently the number of Indian users of WhatsApp Pay is capped at 100 million. Meta’s partnerships with local fintech rivals will now allow a greater number of its more than 400 million users in the country to buy products and services without being redirected outside the app.
“We’re excited to be working with partners Razorpay and PayU to make paying for something as simple as sending a message,” Meta said in a blog post.
The move looks like a step closer to WhatsApp acting as a one-stop-shop mobile app in India, following the example of Asia’s superapps like WeChat.
Meta is hardly the only Western company chasing the superapp model. Elon Musk has talked of turning his X platform –formerly Twitter– into a combination of a financial platform and social network. However, superapps have generally had more success in developing countries where users’ introduction to internet services is via mobile devices. Meta also offers WhatsApp payment options in Brazil and Singapore.
Meta shares were broadly flat in premarket trading on Wednesday.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com
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