Friday 4 August 2017

WhatsApp Lags Behind Key Players in Messenger App Payment Domain

WhatsApp Messenger

This new ad on feature emerged not with much surprise. We stand to witness a time where roles and functions get juggled up. WhatsApp for business and WhatsApp digital payment services are few such examples we can cite here.
The World Wide Web is one big platform with myriad opportunities for the players to harness and optimize to their personal benefit. Mobile technology with its web space connectivity has come up as an extra topping for the key players, each fighting a cut throat battle to instantly grab on any rising occasion. Social media platform is one such lucrative topping drawing big companies to bank on the multiple options offered and to socialize with its huge consumer base, a new face of modern marketing. Online socialization is the ongoing trend. Users prefer to be more actively verbal in a social messenger app rather than indulging in any form of face-to-face conversation.
Recent times again witness a sudden change in the role of the many instant messenger applications. Facebook, Hike and Facebook owned WhatsApp are trying to render a more optimized role to the popular messenger platform extending it into messenger app payment domain and WhatsApp business solution.
However, the popular instant messenger is slightly diffident when it comes to new future updates and services. Though we have seen many new updates making their way into the messaging application pretty recently and it has already announced a possible plan to launch an extension catering to business firms sometime later this year. It somehow got left behind Facebook and Hike messenger in the e wallet messenger domain.
Allow me to brief you on the other key players that have successfully incorporated the messenger app payment option into their framework.
Let us begin our study with Hike messenger:
India centric mobile messaging service Hike took a major step to imitating the Chinese owned WeChat app introducing the messenger mobile payment service. Hike has struggled to withstand its grip over Indian market, continuously receiving threats from the ever popular WhatsApp instant messenger. This strategic move by Hike just proved that it has managed to beat the popular chat app in this sector. This step has kicked off with offering peer-to-peer and bank-to-bank payment options, the former being an in-app wallet and the latter emerged as a service backed by India’s government-supported UPI payment system. Another feature, ‘blue packet’ allows users to gift digital envelopes of cash for special occasions, like birthdays. Moreover, users have phone bills payment and recharge options, with Yes Bank stimulating such features.
Now let us have an understanding of Facebook’s new ad on payments within messenger feature.
The person-to-person messenger payment feature has first entered the market way back in the year of 2015, allowing users to pay either everyone in the group or individual members through a click on the payments icon (the dollar sign). User can also request payments from the group right within their chat, an easy method to raise funds supporting any cause.
Gradually Facebook has expanded its digital payment service to its other messaging application, WhatsApp.
So what does WhatsApp digital payment services actually do??
Indian market is the first choice for Facebook owned WhatsApp to bring forth the many new app features such as the much talked about extended feature catering to small scale business needs that is about to enter the market in the near future. The founding fathers are searching ways to contribute to the PM’s vision for digitalizing India. E messenger wallet is that measured step undertaken towards the shared vision.
Facilitating payments via the instant messenger is the primary objective for WhatsApp.
The chat messenger is in conversation with Indian banks that includes State Bank of India to allow bank-to-bank transfers via UPI (Unified Payments Interface). It has also initiated discussions with National payments Corporation of India (NCPI) as per Economic Times report.
Wrapping Up
No doubt WhatsApp got late to venture out into the e transaction domain compared to its rival Hike yet it is not lagging way behind. The measured step undertaken is likely to give cold shivers to the already popular indigenous e wallets like Paytm and Mobiwik and stand to challenge Hike messenger’s move as well. Considering the wide user base, it is highly unlikely the rivals can withstand the growing popularity of the messenger, if at all, WhatsApp payment service managed to get attuned with its many fan followers.
Probably such strategic steps may have given rise to rumors that Paytm, in turn, is developing ambitious plans to emerge as an amalgamation of messenger and e wallet application pretty soon.

We are yet to witness who will finally win the rat race in the near future???


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