After several trials in Brazil and India, payments through WhatsApp chats are now live in Singapore. meta (the Chief Mark Zuckerberg’s technology company that manages giants such as Facebook or Instagram), started in Singapore in the hands of one of the pioneers in mobile payments.
According to special media report WhatsApp payment will work with Stripe, A start up (start-up company) specialized in mobile payments has become a de facto giant of Silicon Valley. Users will be able to make payments through WhatsApp to various businesses, both online and offline.
Payment options include credit or debit cards, as well as Singapore’s PayNow system. At the moment it’s an option reserved for a few shops through WhatsApp Business, but it’s a preview of what may be coming globally.
WhatsApp has found the missing piece in Stripe. and that while the trials in Brazil and India were largely based on local payment systems, With Stripe they have a very easy mechanism for exporting internationally.
WhatsApp doesn’t have ads or be paid, but it is used by over 2,000 million users. This makes it a potential source of income for Meta, and payments are precisely one of the ways Zuckerberg’s company has chosen to achieve this.
Everything would be as simple as writing to the store and sending it a message. Something like what Bizzum (Spain) or Zelle (USA) has created, but even more quickly integrated into WhatsApp. The problem with these payments is not the interface, but the financial infrastructure behind it to process them. And that’s where Stripe comes in, a true benchmark within the so-called sector fintech (Innovation and technological development of financial products and services). The last estimate of Stripe’s value was $50 billion. This, in the context of the crisis, is a huge number.
