Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service rolled out a system across Brazil on Monday which will allow users to send money to individuals or local organizations within a chat, attaching payment as they would a photo or video. WhatsApp tested the payment system in India beginning in 2018. The Brazil launch will be the first nationwide rollout and will introduce the ability to directly pay a small business.
The company has over 120 million individual users in Brazil, its second-largest market behind India.
“WhatsApp is heavily used there, both by people and small businesses,” Matt Idema, chief operating officer of WhatsApp, said of Brazil.
“We think we can help grow digital payments, help grow the digital economy with small businesses, and help support financial inclusion,” that he told Reuters in an interview.
Many of Brazil’s small businesses already use WhatsApp as a marketing tool to answer questions or send catalogs, Idema said.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in April that the organization was expanding tools for businesses in WhatsApp.
The rollout in Brazil was long in the pipeline, but can help users that are shut in during the coronavirus pandemic, Idema said.
“We can’t have the kind of interactions with each other that people normally would, should you want to lend someone cash or if you want to buy something from a local business,” he said.
The payment system use Facebook Pay and be absolve to individual users, while charging businesses a fee for receiving payments.
Initially, the device will accept payments from debit and bank cards from Banco do Brasil, Nubank and Sicredi, and is working together with Cielo to process the payments.
Idema said the organization was about to bring the payment system to several other countries, but he didn’t specify those.
© Thomson Reuters 2020
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