You could soon be able to make payments online using WhatsApp

Is there anything it can’t do?

Sending money via WhatsApp could be a possibility in the near future, following reports that the Facebook-owned messaging service is targeting India as a destination to trial the service. According to Indian tech news website The Ken, WhatsApp, used by tens of millions of people worldwide, is targeting India as part of a move into digital payments and could launch person to person payments on the app within six months. Applications are currently being invited for a position titled ‘Digital Transactions Lead, India’ on the WhatsApp website and although the position is based at Facebook headquarters in California, the responsibilities include providing ‘friendly and efficient customer support to WhatsApp users in India with inquiries related to digital transactions’ and helping ‘scale global support for digital transactions on WhatsApp’. According to CNN, there are currently in the region of 200 million WhatsApp users in India – one fifth of its user base worldwide. Furthermore, there has been a huge increase in the number of digital payment transactions in India following the decision to take 500 and 1,000 rupee notes out of circulation at the end of the last year, a decision which has taken 86% of India’s cash out of circulation. WhatsApp has kept pretty schtum on the reports so far, but as well as the report in The Ken that cited four sources with knowledge of the matter, one of the requirements for the WhatsApp position is knowledge of Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), a mobile app developed by the National Payments Corporation of India and Aadhar, a 12 digit unique-identity number issued to all Indian residents. Watch this space.