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In India, Whatsapp is HUGE. I would go as far as to say if it were to go down for a day, we will see a dip in the per-day GDP. It is not that so much business

In India, Whatsapp is HUGE. I would go as far as to say if it were to go down for a day, we will see a dip in the per-day GDP. It is not that so much business is conducted on it, but also it is the dominant social messaging glue. Whatsapp probably has about 220 million users in India[1] and also because of dwindling mobile data prices, it also has now become the alternate voice channel [2]. Also I read that 90% of all smart phones in India have Whatsapp installed. (1) http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/whatsapp-hits-200-mn-user-milestone-in-india/article9559045.ece http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/whatsapp-hits-... (2) https://www.medianama.com/2017/05/223-indian-whatsapp-users-video-call-for-50-million-minutes-per-day/ https://www.medianama.com/2017/05/223-indian-whatsapp-users-...

tim333 9y ago
>so much business is conducted on it WhapsApp could probably monetize there by tacking on a payments system, possible a bit paypal like. Could make money and not annoy existing users much beyond an extra button they don't use.
- govg 9y ago
  This is in the works, as far as I remember. They plan to plug into the UPI (financial service by the government) to bring P2P payments. Will be quite the gamechanger, especially with how popular Paytm (another p2p payment method / wallet app) has become with shopkeepers and the like.
- Markoff 9y ago
  just copy what WeChat did, when in China you have no problem to pay to beggar by scanning his QR code, pay for 1RMB (0.15USD) ice cream in corner shop or to any illegal street food vendor, it's really embraced everywhere since all both parties need is phone and no needd to pay any fees to bank for POS terminal not saying it's necessarily better than cards, since it came out of necessity when POS terminals are not as widespread as in west, but it's interesting alternative

tim333 9y ago

>so much business is conducted on it WhapsApp could probably monetize there by tacking on a payments system, possible a bit paypal like. Could make money and not annoy existing users much beyond an extra button they don't use.

govg 9y ago
This is in the works, as far as I remember. They plan to plug into the UPI (financial service by the government) to bring P2P payments. Will be quite the gamechanger, especially with how popular Paytm (another p2p payment method / wallet app) has become with shopkeepers and the like.
Markoff 9y ago
just copy what WeChat did, when in China you have no problem to pay to beggar by scanning his QR code, pay for 1RMB (0.15USD) ice cream in corner shop or to any illegal street food vendor, it's really embraced everywhere since all both parties need is phone and no needd to pay any fees to bank for POS terminal not saying it's necessarily better than cards, since it came out of necessity when POS terminals are not as widespread as in west, but it's interesting alternative