WhatsApp announced the launch of a plan to adopt 500 villages in Karnataka and Maharashtra as part of the company’s promotion of digital payments in the country. WhatsApp provides payment services based on the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in the country. The company announced the digital payment Utsav program at its Fuel For India 2021 annual event, with the goal of helping the “next 500 million” users join the digital payment ecosystem and shared the results of its two-month pilot program.
On Wednesday, WhatsApp revealed that the pilot of the program called Digital Payments Utsav started on October 15th. The company worked with 1Bridge to interact with residents of Kyathanahalli Village in the Mandia District of Karnataka. The company stated that the villagers learned how to register for UPI and open an account, as well as best practices when making UPI payments. According to WhatsApp, the response to the digital payment Utsav pilot program has been positive, with small businesses such as grocery stores, poultry shops and salon owners adopting the company’s “WhatsApp Payment” product.
The company also quoted gram panchayat member Chidananda KJ as saying: “In the past, withdrawing money from the village’s bank was a tedious and time-consuming affair, and ATM machines usually don’t have cash. It’s easier to make payments with WhatsApp. .. “WhatsApp recently updated its popular chat application, adding a new rupee symbol shortcut to the chat editor window, making it easier for users who have registered for company payment services to send and receive funds in the application.
This icon is visible to all users, regardless of whether they use the UPI function or not. WhatsApp has previously updated the application to enable it to scan Quick Response (QR) codes to make it easier to pay in stores, and applications such as Google Pay also support this feature.
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