WhatsApp, one of the world's leading messaging apps, is rolling out a long-awaited new feature. After the update, users in Brazil will be able to shop and pay from within the app.
Meta, the owner of WhatsApp, announced that WhatsApp users in Brazil can now officially pay small businesses for goods and services from within the app. The business payment feature is currently available to a small number of businesses but will roll out more widely in the coming months, allowing customers to shop using their Mastercard or Visa credit, debit or prepaid cards “without having to go to a website, open another app or pay in person.”
The launch of WhatsApp payment services in Brazil has been a challenging process. The messaging app's attempt to offer both peer-to-peer money transfers and payments to business owners made the current rollout more complicated. On the peer-to-peer (P2P) side, WhatsApp first launched its payment feature in 2020, but the service was suspended by the country's central bank just days later over competition concerns. Peer-to-peer payments finally returned a year later.
TechCrunch noted that businesses could previously accept payments through WhatsApp by using third-party payment services, but the messaging service now offers a direct payment function.
With WhatsApp's payment method, users will be able to pay and shop within the app without leaving their chat screens
Offering financial services like these has become a key factor that sets WhatsApp apart from its competitors. Beyond being just a messaging app, interaction with businesses has increased further, while users have gained a more advanced way to communicate with friends and family. The feature WhatsApp offers is also very similar to Tencent's WeChat app, which is widely used in China.
WhatsApp has rolled out similar payment features in India, its other major market. TechCrunch also noted that as of April last year, WhatsApp had received government approval to offer payment services to 100 million users.
