Popular mobile messaging platform WhatsApp is inching closer to launching its India operations. The Facebook-owned company has informed the Supreme Court that it is now fully compliant with the Reserve Bank of India's data localisation norms. WhatsApp told the apex court in its response that it has now “localised five data elements” that were identified by the banking regulator and mandated them to store in India only.
WhatsApp has submitted that an independent third-party auditor, certified by central government’s cybersecurity firm CERT-in, has confirmed that WhatsApp Payments satisfies the data localisation requirements under the RBI circular.
The RBI norms proved to be the main hurdle for WhatsApp Payments's India services, which has been in pilot for almost two years now. WhatsApp's submission in the court of full compliance to the data norms comes just two months after Facebook bought a 9.9 per cent stake in Reliance Industries-owned Jio Platforms for $5.7 billion. Simultaneously, Jio Platforms, WhatsApp Inc, and Reliance Retail Ltd (RRL) have also proposed to enter into a separate commercial arrangement. Under the arrangement, JioMart—a new RRL commerce marketplace which connects customers with Kirana stores and other small and microlocal Indian businesses—plans to integrate certain WhatsApp services with JioMart.
The Facebook deal with Jio, India's largest telecom company with 5.6 million mobile subscribers, will provide the perfect launchpad for WhatsApp Payments in the country. India's digital payment space is currently ruled by Google Pay, Walmart-owned PhonePe and Paytm.
In India, mobile commerce is the dominant factor in the digital payments space. It already accounts for 48 per cent of digital commerce sales and is forecasted to reach 70 per cent by 2022. And hence, the payments foray of WhatsApp, which has over 400 million monthly active users in India, is being keenly watched. Recently, it launched the payment service in Brazil.
