India is an important market for WhatsApp, comprising 400 million of its 1,5 billion global users
Whatsapp's much-awaited BHIM UPI-compliant payment service, which has been hanging since 2016, is scheduled to be rolled out in the first half of this year as the instant messaging network is in the midst of compliance with the legislation on data localisation. After this, it will undergo a security audit before the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) obtains its final approval.
The firm was operating a pilot of approximately 1 million customers for its app, WhatsApp Payments. Certain companies in the sector include Google Wallet, which dominates the Indian market for payment service providers (PSPs), preceded by Paytm, PhonePe, BHIM and Axis Pay.
Sources said the Facebook-owned app is in the "advanced stages" of reaching RBI data localisation requirements. "We satisfy the regulatory requirements, after which the National Payments Corporation (NPCI) must perform a security audit and then it will be entitled to obtain RBI's permission," one of the sources said.
Another source said, "Google has met the requirements for localization, and is conducting an examination. It'll be getting approval from the RBI shortly.
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It seems to take them a little longer with WhatsApp as they are yet to obey. Ideally their service should be available during the first half of this year.
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