Facebook subsidiary WhatsApp was testing its payment service in India last year. So it’s surprising to see now that the company has announced the launch of the service in Brazil instead.
In its current form, the ability to transfer money through the app is powered by Facebook Pay. This is opposed to its own WhatsApp Pay that it used during last year’s trial. But specifics aside, the idea behind the service is the same. You can transfer money to another person or business through the app itself, rather than having to use another app.
To use this, users will have to tie a supported debit or credit card to their WhatsApp account. The transactions themselves will have to be authenticated via a six digit PIN, or via fingerprint.
The service is free for regular users sending money to one another, or when paying a business for something. Businesses, on the other hand, will have to pay WhatsApp a processing fee, similar to the processing fee charged by credit cards.
WhatsApp says that it will be rolling the service out to other markets soon. Faacebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the same in a post. But neither shared exact details as to when and where that will be.
(Source: WhatsApp, Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook)
