For Digital Payments Whatsapp Launches Pilot Program and Empower 500 Villages In India

The WhatsApp instant messaging platform today announced its pilot program to launch 500 villages in Karnataka and Maharashtra to give villagers access to digital payments through "WhatsApp payments".

The announcement was made at Fuel For India 2021, Meta's annual event in India, showcasing the socio-economic transitions that came with Meta and its bid family.

A pilot program called Utsav Digital Payments began on October 15 in Kyatanahalli village in Mandya, Karnataka, where field coordinators educated residents on various aspects of digital payments, including UPI registration, creating UPI accounts, and payment security best practices digital.

WhatsApp said the pilot's initial results were encouraging. "Villagers have started adopting 'WhatsApp' payments as a new payment method. The grocery store in the village or the owner of the beauty salon and dozens of others and small and medium enterprises - now receive and receive digital payments using "payments on WhatsApp", the company said in a press release.

"Withdrawals from banks in the village were once boring and time-consuming, and ATMs do not usually have cash. Things have become much easier because of WhatsApp payments, ” said Chidananda KJ, a Gram Panchayat member of Kyathanahalli village.

"I've been running my salon for the last ten years," said Shruthi K, a beauty salon owner. "Old customers prefer to pay in cash. I don't have my own UPI-ID. So when new customers want to pay digitally, I give them my son's WhatsApp QR code. 

WhatsApp also recently installed the ₹ symbol in its chat, making it easier for users from different segments to recognize and use the digital payment feature. In addition, the messaging platform has equipped its main camera to scan QR codes, adding another layer of convenience for consumers when making payments on WhatsApp, allowing in the process to access 20 million stores that receive QR codes from the country.

Abhijit Bose, Head of WhatsApp India, said: “We started this pilot program in 500 villages in Karnataka and Maharashtra as part of our mission to include the next 500 million in the digital payments ecosystem. We believe that WhatsApp's ease of use and reliability can drive UPI adoption by users around the world, including those at the bottom of the pyramid. We will continue to contribute significantly to this journey of educating consumers in this area so that they can have confidence in digital payments as they gradually move from a “purely financial” financial lifestyle. "