Will Hike Beat Whatsapp In Setting Up A Payments Platform?

Indian messaging app Hike Messenger is set to launch a payments mechanism on its app that will be linked to the government-backed unified payments interface (UPI). The move can make the messaging app the first in India to have the capability way ahead of other apps such as WhatsApp.

According to a report in the Economic Times, the app may launch peer-to-peer payments within the app and provide a platform for making digital transactions such as recharges for mobile phone subscriptions.

The report also mentioned that the app is in talks with an Indian bank to handle the back-end operations of the payment services.

The largest messaging app in the world - Whatsapp, considers India as its biggest market with over 200 million users, may also introduce payments based on UPI and BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money).

By launching payments, Hike would become the closest competitor to Facebook-owned Whatsapp, which is planning to launch payments in India in the next six months, according to recent reports.

Also read: You Could Soon Use WhatsApp To Make Digital Payments Too