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With an active user base of 500 million, WhatsApp Pay has struggled to gain traction in India's competitive $3 trillion digital payments market. Initially launched with high expectations, the Meta payments platform has failed to pose a challenge to local leaders like Google Pay and PhonePe, which together account for over 80% of UPI transactions, as per the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
The fintech journey for WhatsApp began in 2018, but it was immediately met with regulatory hurdles. The Indian government restricted WhatsApp Pay's user base to 1 million, effectively scaling it back after six years.
Though the cap was lifted entirely in December 2024, it was too late. "It wasn't simply a matter of delayed access—it was a matter of timing in a fast-moving ecosystem," exclaimed Sanchit Vir Gogia, CEO at Greyhound Research.
Meta has done little to capitalize on the regulatory approval. “No big product revamp, no cash-back play, no merchant push, no marketing blitz,” said Deepak Abbot, co-founder of Indiagold.
Experts opine that WhatsApp Pay in India lacked crucial measures such as rewards to the user interface, brand affinity, or deep merchant networks, unlike its stronger competitors.
WhatsApp’s image as a messaging app also hampered its fintech ambitions. “Users may be hesitant to trust WhatsApp with financial transactions,” said Koppisetty Yasaswini Pujitha, an analyst at GlobalData.
International expansion has not been a great success either. WhatsApp Pay is currently being installed only in Brazil and Singapore. Launching in Mexico and Indonesia remains on hold.
For Ankur Bisen, senior partner at Technopak Advisors, the question was not about what WhatsApp could do but about its willingness to do that:
"QR codes, UI - all these things WhatsApp can also do. It’s very easy. There’s no big tech about these interventions, especially for a company like WhatsApp. But whether WhatsApp will want to do it or not, that’s a key question."
The struggle of WhatsApp Pay in India is not a case of technological limitations but a reflection of strategic indecision. The platform had every advantage: scale, integration, and capital. The social media giant made a mistake by not choosing the bold path in a fast-moving market and lost relevance.
Meaningful growth will have less to do with regulatory relief and more with whether Meta will step up and begin treating fintech as a serious, long-term priority.
