WhatsApp launches Digital Payments in Brazil

WhatsApp, a product of Facebook has launched its much awaited digital payment platform in Brazil for people and small businesses.

While still not clear when a global roll out will be available, Facebook pay powers the WhatsApp digital payments is already available in Kenya.

Facebook hopes to integrate it’s Pay platform with most of it’s products starting with WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.

Starting June 15, 2020 people in Brazil will be able to send money securely or make a purchase from a local business without leaving their chat.

The over 10 million small and micro businesses are the heartbeat of Brazil’s communities. It’s become second nature to send a zap to a business to get questions answered. Now in addition to viewing a store’s catalog, customers will be able to send payments for products as well. Making payments simple can help bring more businesses into the digital economy, opening up new opportunities for growth.

In addition, Whatsapp is making sending money to loved ones as easy as sending a message, which could not be more important as people are physically distant from one another. Because payments on WhatsApp are enabled by Facebook Pay, in the future we want to make it possible for people and businesses to use the same card information across Facebook’s family of apps.

They have also built payments with security in mind and a special six digit PIN or fingerprint will be required to prevent unauthorized transactions. To start, they will support debit or credit cards from Banco do Brasil, Nubank, and Sicredi on the Visa and Mastercard networks -and we are working with Cielo, the leading payments processor in Brazil.

Sending money or making a purchase on WhatsApp will be free for people. Businesses will pay a processing fee to receive customer payments, similar to what they may already pay when accepting a credit card transaction.