After introducing payments services on WhatsApp, it seems that Facebook is now reading to bring payment services in Messenger in India. The company is reportedly testing the beta version of the payments platform in the country.
According to a report by Factor Daily, the social media giant is quietly working on building a new payments platform, which will be independent of WhatsApp payments. “The platform will be separate from WhatsApp and will allow peer-to-peer and peer-to-merchant payments,” sources close to the development told the publication.
The report further adds that the company has already launched a beta version of recharge payments for mobile phone and other prepaid services on its chat-based platform Messenger. “Recharge is a good way to test the market. The transaction values are small but the volumes are high,” said the source.
With this, Facebook is trying to build a new payments platform that will allow buyers and sellers to transact on Facebook Marketplace and Messenger. Marketplace allows users to buy and sell products within Facebook communities and with payments services in Messenger, users will be able to make transactions without leaving the Facebook.
To recall, Facebook-owned Messaging app, WhatsApp, introduced UPI-based payment services in India this year. With WhatsApp Payments, users can send and receive money from within WhatsApp with UPI (Unified Payments Interface). To either receive or send money, you have to first link your bank account which is already linked to UPI. It is important to note here that both sender and receiver need to have UPI setup in their WhatsApp accounts for the payments to work.