WhatsApp has been given permission to offer payments in India.
In Brief:
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WhatsApp can now join the country’s United Payments Interface (UPI).
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It will begin offering the payments service to 20mn people.
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It currently has 400mn users in India.
What does this mean?
WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, has been testing peer-to-peer payments in the country for a couple of years now but has only now been given permission by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to launch the service properly.
Currently, payments services are already offered in India by the likes of Google Pay and local rival Paytm.
