Major Push For ‘WhatsApp Pay’ As NPCI Gives Nod For Expansion Of Service To 10 Million Users In India

In a major development for the Facebook-owned instant message service provider WhatsApp which is looking to launch it's digital payments initiative based on United Payment Interface (UPI), the company has received the crucial nod from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to expand its services to 10 million users, reports Economic Times.

The major development was made public by Nandan Nilekani when he was speaking at an IIT Industry Conclave. Nilekani is known as the revered architect of the Aadhaar database and the UPI.

It should be noted that the social media major Facebook has been running a pilot of its WhatsApp Pay service with one million users across India. However, the company has been struggling to attain a licence to launch full-fledged services across the nation.

WhatsApp has more than 400 million users in India who make the messaging service's largest market worldwide. Once launched in this market on a full-fledged basis, Whatsapp Pay will compete against other industry giants like Alibaba backed PayTM, Google's G-Pay and Walmart owned PhonePe.