SAO PAULO, 15th June 2020 — Facebook launched its WhatsApp payment service in Brazil today.
With the addition of Visa’s trusted payment technology, WhatsApp users will now be able to swiftly and securely send and receive money to family and friends, and to make purchases from small businesses on the popular global messaging service.
Payments on WhatsApp will allow users to send money to individuals or local businesses within a chat, attaching payment as they would a photo or video.
WhatsApp tested the payment system in India beginning in 2018. The Brazil launch will be the first nationwide rollout and will introduce the ability to directly pay a business.
The company has over 120 million individual users in Brazil, its second-largest market behind India.
“WhatsApp is heavily used there, both by people and small businesses,” Matt Idema, chief operating officer of WhatsApp, said of Brazil.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg makes the announcement of the Whatsapp payment feature launch in Brazil in its Facebook post,
Today we’re starting to launch payments for people using WhatsApp in Brazil. We’re making sending and receiving money as easy as sharing photos. We’re also enabling small businesses to make sales right within WhatsApp.
To do this, we’re building on Facebook Pay, which provides a secure and consistent way to make payments across our apps. I want to thank all of our partners for making this possible. We’re working with local banks, including Banco do Brasil, Nubank, Sicredi as well as Cielo, the leading payments processor for merchants in Brazil.
Brazil is the first country where we’re widely rolling out payments in WhatsApp. More to come soon!