WhatsApp is reportedly planning to enter the credit space in India via its payments service, WhatsApp Pay. The Facebook-owned messaging app has been finding it difficult to roll out its payment services in India and has been indulging in discussions with the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) for quite some time.
WhatsApp has mentioned ‘credit’ as one of its future business plans for India in a regulatory filing. The filing shared with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs was accessed by TechCrunch. While the listing does not reveal any further details, it does give an idea of what the company is planning to do with WhatsApp Pay.
There is no word on when Facebook will roll out WhatsApp to its 400 million users in India. The company did reportedly manage to get a nod from the NCPI to operate its digital payment service in a phased manner while complying with the local data regulation norms. The first phase of the rollout will offer WhatsApp payment services to over 10 million users.
The news of the credit services comes a day after Amazon announced its Amazon Pay Later for India, which offers zero-interest credit and EMI options, even for utility payments and buying essential products. Another e-commerce giant, Flipkart, offers a similar service with Flipkart Pay Later.
