Whatsapp has recently announced the launch of Person to Person payment feature. With this feature, people will be able to send money to each other and also buy stuff from local businesses without leaving the chat. The feature is currently available in Brazil.
The move is actually part of Facebook’s long term plan to integrate e-commerce functionality within its platforms. This feature actually stems from the FacebookPay that lets you purchase things directly from Facebook.
In one of their recent statements:
“Because payments on WhatsApp are enabled by Facebook Pay, in the future we want to make it possible for people and businesses to use the same card information across Facebook’s family of apps.”
Security and Privacy
Whatsapp has claimed that their payments functionality is secure and it uses a 6-digit pin with optional fingerprint. Here are some brief highlights on the Facebook Pay security mechanisms:
- Anti-fraud monitoring detects unauthorized purchases by monitoring transactions
- Credit and Debit card information is stored separately from the account data
- Fingerprint and Facial recognition for verification of payments
- Transactions will not display on the news feed until you explicitly want to
The good news is sending money on Whatsapp will be free for people. Local business will be charged a commission fee per transaction. The fee will be similar to the current transaction fees of debit and credit cards.
They have teamed up with Visa and Mastercard networks in Brazil and looking for other potential partners all over the globe.
While the payments feature is functional in Brazil only, it will roll out in other countries in the coming months. This is an important step towards building a worldwide e-commerce ecosystem.
