WhatsApp Payments, an in-chat payment feature that lets customers perform transfers through the messaging app to anyone in their contact list, announced on Monday it is bringing digital payments to WhatsApp users in Brazil.
“The over 10 million small and micro-businesses are the heartbeat of Brazil’s communities. It’s become second nature to send a zap to a business to get questions answered. Now in addition to viewing a store’s catalog, customers will be able to send payments for products as well. Making payments simple can help bring more businesses into the digital economy, opening up new opportunities for growth.”
WhatsApp further noted that it has built payments with security in mind and a special six-digit PIN or fingerprint will be required to prevent unauthorized transactions.
“To start, we will support debit or credit cards from Banco do Brasil, Nubank, and Sicredi on the Visa and Mastercard networks -and we are working with Cielo, the leading payments processor in Brazil. We have built an open model to welcome more partners in the future.”
WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, (NASDAQ: FB) which bought the social media platform in 2014 for about $19.3 billion. WhatsApp became the world’s most popular messaging application by 2015 and claims more than two billion users worldwide as 2020.
“Sending money or making a purchase on WhatsApp is free for people. Businesses will pay a processing fee to receive customer payments, similar to what they may already pay when accepting a credit card transaction.”