NPCI allows WhatsApp to extend UPI to 10 crore users

WhatsApp has won approval from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to more than double the number of users of its payments service in the country to 100 million (10 crore), according to a report.

The NPCI has confirmed that the messaging platform has been permitted to roll out its payments service to an additional 60 million users.

“National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has approved an additional sixty million users on UPI for WhatsApp. With this approval, WhatsApp will be able to expand the service to its hundred (100) million users,” an NPCI spokesperson said.

WhatsApp started testing its payments service in India with one million users back in 2018. The company formally launched the service in 2020 after spending years trying to comply with Indian regulations, which included a rule that all payments-related data must be stored locally. At the time, the company was allowed to roll out WhatsApp Pay to just 20 million users. 

Last year, this limit was increased to 40 million. 

The new cap could still limit WhatsApp’s growth prospects given it has more than 500 million users in India.

WhatsApp has told the NPCI several times it wants to operate ”without a cap”, but privately the NPCI is of the view that allowing all its users to access the payments service could strain the country’s financial infrastructure, a source told Reuters.

WhatsApp competes with Google Pay, Paytm and Walmart’s PhonePe in India’s crowded digital market.