WhatsApp Pay is a new feature of the messaging app that allows you to send money to your friends. Here's how it works and when it arrives in Italy
While all the attentions of high finance were focused on Libra, the cryptocurrency created by Facebook and that should make its debut by 2020, but is encountering a lot of resistance and problems, the Menlo Park company developed another payment method: WhatsApp Pay. Payment method that could debut soon in Italy too, or at least these are the goals of Mark Zuckerberg.
It is no secret that Facebook (intended as a company) is planning to become a protagonist in the world of digital payments. After becoming the main reference point for the world of social (Facebook) and messaging apps (WhatsApp), the company led by Zuckerberg wants to monetize its audience and launch its own digital payment system. To mean a system similar to Apple Pay and Google Pay that integrates directly with WhatsApp and allows you to send money to your friends or pay for groceries at the supermarket.
The tool already exists and is called WhatsApp Pay. For the moment it is being tested in India, but Facebook wants to extend it soon in other countries and then release it worldwide. And Italy could be part of the countries chosen in this initial test.
What is WhatsApp Pay
WhatsApp Pay is a new feature of the instant messaging application launched for the moment only for one million users in India. As you can guess from the name, it is a digital payment system, similar to Apple Pay and Google Pay. that allows you to exchange money or send money to a friend directly through the application.
Facebook's goal is to gain a major slice of this new market, thanks to the fact that more than 1.5 billion people use WhatsApp daily to chat.
How WhatsApp Pay works
The operation of WhatsApp Pay has yet to be perfected. For now, it is based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India and all transactions are supervised by the Central Bank of India. This means that if Facebook wants to bring WhatsApp Pay to other nations as well, it will have to develop its own system. System that, however, is still not officially announced.
When it goes live, the operation of WhatsApp should be very simple. Users will be able to register their credit cards in the digital wallet and will be able to send money to friends by entering inside the conversation and entering the amount of the economic transaction. WhatsApp Pay could also be used to pay for groceries at the supermarket using NFC technology or the WhatsApp Business account of companies.
When WhatsApp Pay arrives in Italy
It's hard to say. The feature is still being tested in India and in the coming months it could make its debut in other nations. Facebook's goal is to test it first in nations with a large population and developing and then launch it worldwide. A realistic guess is that WhatsApp Pay will debut by the end of 2020.