Facebook faces WhatsApp payment delays in India, technology

Fri, Jul 20, 2018 – 4:12 PM

[BANGALORE] The Indian Government Delays Facebook Inc's Plans for a National Launch of Its WhatsApp Payment Service Due to Concerns About How Users' Data Will Be Stored and other issues, according to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technologies of the country, or MEITY, asked WhatsApp and its partner banks to provide more details about the system of payment, said ministry officials, who asked not to be named. is private. The ministry also asked that the payments controller of the industry, the National Payments Corporation of India, confirms that WhatsApp is fully compliant with its requirements, they said.

"We are working closely with the Indian government, NPCI and several banks" Anne Yeh, a spokeswoman for WhatsApp, said in response to questions sent by email, refusing to elaborate on the schedule of "A nationwide launch." Dilip Asbe, CEO of NPCI, declined to comment

The delay just comes as WhatsApp has been involved in a controversy over lynchings in the country. Doctored images and fake videos on the child abduction messaging platform have become viral in rural areas, whipping crowds that have beaten and lynched about two dozen Indians. MEITY warned in a statement that the company is facing legal action for encouraging violence if it does not. WhatsApp has not responded to requests for comments on the statement of claim. ministry.

It is unclear what role – if any – the scandal plays in the WhatsApp approval process. Among the compliance standards, the Indian central bank recently required payment services to store customer data on local servers to maintain privacy and security. The delay of expansion could cost the company Facebook increased competition from local leader Paytm and its global rivals such as Google's Tez Inc. and Truecaller of Sweden

"Rivals has the advantage of To be a forerunner and another hold-up could mean that WhatsApp "explains Arnav Gupta, Digital Strategy Analyst at New Delhi at Forrester Research Inc." The faster they are, the faster they can improve according to comments from users and businesses "

The WhatsApp messaging service, where the groups share gossip and viral videos, has been a powerful growth engine for the technology giant.India has become the WhatsApp's largest global market with 230 million users and the payment business has attracted nearly one million people since the launch of the limited beta test in February.

WhatsApp was to expand the himself at the national level by June. Bloomberg News reported in May

WhatsApp's surge in digital payments poses a threat to rivals because of its large number of users confined to a Facebook ecosystem. His service was compared to China WeChat, which also gathered hundreds of millions of users before plunging into payments, eventually becoming a major player in mobile finance. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of Paytm, accused Facebook of evading security requirements during his pilot project to create a "walled garden" – a vast, lucrative database over which he exercises total control.

with a government effort to prevent his service from fueling violence. The company has released full-page ads in prominent English and Hindi newspapers warning readers of false news. On Thursday, WhatsApp said it would test the brakes on users' ability to transmit photos and videos.

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