After India and Brazil, WhatsApp is launching the ability to pay businesses within a chat in Singapore. Meta has partnered with Stripe to roll out the feature in the region.
WhatsApp has built this payment feature using Stripe Connect and Stripe Checkout solutions, making in-app payments available online and offline. Customers can pay businesses using credit cards, debit cards or Singapore’s PayNow fund transfer system.
Meta said the feature to accept payments through WhatsApp is available only to a few businesses at the moment. But it plans to expand the availability to more merchants over the coming months. Businesses can set up this feature through WhatsApp Business, which will guide them on getting a Stripe account too.
“Most people I know in Singapore use WhatsApp to chat with each other. Now, they can pay local businesses using the app as well. The speed and convenience of payments through WhatsApp will help businesses expand their revenue streams with new channels and access a wider customer base,” Sarita Singh, regional head and managing director for Southeast Asia at Stripe, said in a statement.
WhatsApp first launched its payment services in India based on the country’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI) network in 2020 in test mode. In 2022, The National Payments Corporation of India allowed Meta to expand the service to 100 million users. Last August the company introduced an end-to-end shopping experience with Reliance Jio in India, letting customers order groceries using the app. Last month, WhatsApp also launched merchant payments in Brazil, after allowing peer-to-peer payments for nearly three years.
Mark Zuckerberg is now leaning into the chat app’s 2 billion user base to launch payment services in different regions. Given that WhatsApp doesn’t have subscription fees or ads, its business offerings are the marquee method for Meta to earn money from the app. Starting next month, WhatsApp is also switching from a notification-based pricing system to a conversation-based pricing structure for usage of its Business services.