In India, WhatsApp is set to be entered into the insurance business. Payments feature of WhatsApp is now available to users nationwide.
The Company said that “it expects to facilitate the purchase of “affordable sachet-sized” health insurance via its platform by the end of the year as part of its efforts to provide users in India with greater access to financial solutions.”
There are currently up to 20 million WhatsApp payment users with support from banking partners such as SBI, HDFC, ICICI, and Axis Bank.
WhatsApp India Head Abhijit Bose was quoted by PTI as saying at the Facebook Fuel for India 2020 event, “WhatsApp is deeply committed to India with over 400 million active users, this is our largest market. Our primary focus will always be to provide the most simple, reliable, private, and secure experience for people to connect. However, in India, we are also building on four other pillars.”
Bose further said that “WhatsApp wants to help further digitize and scale the small business ecosystem of India, make it easier for consumers to connect with and buy from their favorite businesses, and build digital payments across all segments, especially for underserved users in India.
“While, WhatsApp said in a statement that “By the end of this year, buying affordable health insurance coverage from SBI General leveraging WhatsApp, will become a reality.”
In also addition, that with HDFC Pensions and pin box solutions, the WhatsApp platform will be leveraged to help enable savings for retirement that will be especially beneficial for people who don’t have organized employment benefits.
WhatsApp has designed its payments feature on NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India’s), and UPI (Unified Payment Interface) system.
The company was granted approvals to go live recently in November of this year on a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) basis, enabling people to transfer money.
Further Bose said that “We have been approved to launch payment services using UPI, which is truly a revolutionary platform from India, which I believe will become a template for the world.”
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