In news reports, Facebook Inc’s messaging service WhatsApp is supposedly in discussions with multiple Indonesian digital payment firms.
The talk comprises of the company to be offering their mobile transaction service. It is a move to tap the nation’s fast-growing e-commerce sector, according to sources.
Indonesia could have become the second country worldwide where WhatsApp announces such services.
In India, it is very different because it plans to provide direct peer-to-peer payment services.
A news source stated that WhatsApp serves as a platform in Indonesia backing payments via local digital wallets due to hard licensing regulations.
The Indonesia model could become a pattern for WhatsApp.
It is for the application to adopt in other developing markets and to get around protocols on foreign players producing their digital wallets.
Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy and home to over 260 million people.
The place is one of the top five markets globally for WhatsApp, with over 100 million users.
Meanwhile, according to some estimates, the nation will see its e-commerce industry tripling to $100 billion by 2025.
The state also has some of the region’s strictest digital payments rules.
WhatsApp is in progressive talks with several digital payment firms.
The meeting includes ride hailer Go-Jek, mobile payments firm DANA, backed by China’s Ant Financial, and fintech startup OVO.
Some sources stated that the deals with the three firms are likely to end soon.
In a news report, WhatsApp supposedly contacted state-owned Bank Mandiri, which operates a digital wallet.
WhatsApp Plans of Extending to Other Countries
Earlier this year, after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that it would be rolling out WhatsApp payments to “some countries,” the Indonesia plan came up.
In a news report, a Facebook spokeswoman said, “As Mark has said earlier this year… we are looking to bring digital payments to more countries.”
In addition, “WhatsApp is in conversations with financial partners in Indonesia about payments.”
Lastly, “However, the discussions are in early stages, and we do not have anything further to share at this stage.”
Meanwhile, as Go-Jek declined to comment, others also did not respond such as the DANA, OVO and Bank Mandiri.
Two sources said they expected the formal plan to be delayed by several months, as WhatsApp would not want to launch in Indonesia before India.
The service was initially going to start at the end of 2019. This is becoming more and more like the plot of friv games other than what is described initially here.
Elsewhere, several users in Brazil conveyed problems. Some parts of Europe, including areas of Spain and the Netherlands, also seem to have issues with the messaging app.
Unlike many other vital services, WhatsApp does not sustain a status page to let people check whether its systems are online or offline.
It does have a Twitter account that was once a news blog to let people be aware of issues. But it has not been maintained and updated for five years.
The Twitter account does not seem to be helpful.
Right now, users seemed somewhat theoretical about the latest disconnection.
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