Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
(pictured) outlined plans to launch mobile payments on its WhatsApp platform
across several countries in 2019, despite the system remaining at the trial
phase in its debut market of India.
Beta testing for WhatsApp’s
peer-to-peer (P2P) payment platform began in February 2018 , with the executive
stating during Facebook’s F8 developer conference it has 1 million users so
far.
The India trial is the company’s
first attempt at offering peer-to-peer payments through WhatsApp, though
Facebook offers a similar service on Messenger in the US.
During his F8 keynote,
Zuckerberg said he was “really excited” about the payment part of “the vision”
for Facebook.
He added enabling cash transfer
was “one of the most important things we can do,” noting “I believe it should
be as easy to send money to someone as it is to send a photo”.
On the India trial, he said the
feedback had been positive without offering a launch date.
During the pilot phase a number
of press reports have emerged stating a launch was imminent, but came to
nothing. In the meantime several rivals have brought out similar services in
what is already an extremely competitive market.
