WhatsApp Payments are enabled by Facebook Pay, enabling people to use the same credit card information across Facebook’s family of apps.
Using WhatsApp Payments, people can send money securely or make purchases from local businesses directly from their chats.
Brazil marks the first countrywide rollout of WhatsApp’s new Payment feature. It supports credit and debit cars from Banco do Brasil, Nubank, and Sicredi on the Mastercard and Visa networks, and Facebook is working with the country’s leading payments processor, Cielo. The feature is built on an open model to easily add more partners in the future.
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In order to start sending money, WhatsApp users in Brazil will have to set a special 6-digit PIN and/or set up fingerprint or face ID recognition. The extra security is required to prevent unauthorized transactions.
Sending money or making purchases via WhatsApp Payments is free-of-charge for all users. Businesses, on the other hand, will have to pay a processing fee to receive payments, much like for usual credit-card transactions.
WhatsApp said in a blog post, “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.”