WhatsApp has been trying in vain to get its payments service, WhatsApp Pay, running in India. Right now, it is only available to a fraction of its total user base for testing purposes.
The popular instant messaging service is willing to unveil its payments service in the country for a long time but unable to do so owing to non-compliance of data localization policies.
WhatsApp may take up five months in a bid to comply with data localization rules in India and go live.
Currently, WhatsApp has been permitted to beta-test its payments product within a limited user base of 10 lakh and has been allowed only small-value transactions by the National Payments Corporation of India, which runs the Unified Payments Interface(UPI) railroad.
The company does not share details of the exact number of users on its platform, but sources said it may be in the range of 7 lakh. The Facebook-owned Whatsapp uses UPI for facilitating payments in India.
While several players such as Paytm etc complied with the norms, WhatsApp with its payment system had been seeking approval to merely mirror or copy payments data within India, while also storing the same data in its overseas servers.
After reports surfaced that WhatsApp Pay is ready to adhere to data localization demands, the company had also reportedly roped in a third party company to audit its payments system and ensure that it complies with Indian data localization rules.
Once it gets the data localization clearance, WhatsApp Pay is looking to challenge payments majors such as Paytm, PhonePe, and GooglePay in the battleground of the Indian digital payment sector, which is expected to grow five-fold to reach $1 Tn by 2023.