WhatsApp has reportedly launched a digital payment service on its platform in Brazil owing to its widespread adoption in the emerging markets. The parent company, Facebook, has been reportedly planning to bring e-Commerce to its platforms.

The new payment service, WhatsApp Pay, will enable users to transfer money free of cost, as well as make various purchases from small businesses. In order to facilitate digital payments, small businesses must pay processing fees to receive customer payments.

Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, had previously revealed plans to deliver this new service to other regions, namely Mexico, Indonesia, and India.

The new service launch is part of Facebook’s strategy to ensure wider digital payment access across all its platforms. The company has reportedly stated that it targets to urge businesses and people to adopt the same payment card information across various Facebook’s apps, since Facebook Pay has enabled payments on its messaging service.

Brazil is the 2nd-largest market for WhatsApp after India, holding a customer base of over 120 million. The messaging service has been conducting tests to launch the payment service in India, where the company holds around 400 million users. However, constant efforts of the company to expand its WhatsApp Pay service in India have been reportedly delayed by the regulators.

In April 2020, Facebook entered a stock deal with Reliance Jio, a telecoms group in India, to purchase a 10% stake for $5.7 billion (£4.5 billion). The deal enabled the social networking company to form a strong alliance with Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Jio’s chairman. The focus of the two companies is on a partnership with JioMart, the newly launched e-Commerce platform of Jio.

Additionally, Facebook invested in Gojek, a ride-hailing app in Indonesia, for an undisclosed sum in May. The two companies will adopt this tie-up to expand GoPay, a digital payment service of Gojek.

Facebook invested around $20 billion to acquire WhatsApp in 2014. The messaging app reported that it has a user base of more than 2 billion across the globe in February.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53059913