Lagatar24 Desk
Mumbai, Dec.15: As part of its push to encourage digital payments in India, WhatsApp has announced the commencement of a campaign to adopt 500 villages in Karnataka and Maharashtra. WhatsApp offers a payment solution based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in the country. At its Fuel For India 2021 annual event, the firm unveiled the Digital Payments Utsav programme, with the goal of assisting the “next 500 million” consumers to join the digital payments ecosystem, and highlighted the results of its two-month pilot programme.
WhatsApp announced on Wednesday that the Digital Payments Utsav pilot programme started on October 15 and that the firm teamed with 1Bridge to communicate with locals of Kyathanahalli hamlet in Karnataka’s Mandya district. Villagers were taught how to sign up for UPI and set up an account, as well as best practises for making UPI payments, according to the business.
According to WhatsApp, small businesses such as grocery stores, poultry shops, and salon owners have adopted the company’s ‘payments on WhatsApp’ offering as a result of the Digital Payments Utsav trial programme.
WhatsApp recently added a new rupee symbol shortcut to the chat composer window, making it easier for users who have joined up for the company’s payment service to send and receive money using the app. Regardless of whether or not they use the UPI feature, all users will see the icon. WhatsApp earlier added the ability to scan Quick Response (QR) codes to make in-store payments easier, a feature that is already supported by Google Pay.
