Visa, Facebook Enable Payment Services Via WhatsApp in Brazil

Visa Inc. V has joined Facebook, Inc. FB to enable the new payments feature on the WhatsApp in Brazil.

The company’s trusted payment technology will strengthen the WhatsApp payment service in Brazil using Facebook Pay, the e-payments service launched by Facebook last year. Through Facebook Pay, users will be able to swiftly and securely send and receive money to family and friends. They will also be able to make purchases from small businesses on the chat application.

Visa will be providing the payment service by leveraging its Visa Direct and Visa Cloud Tokenization technology. Visa Direct is a real-time push payments technology, which expedites money transfers. Visa Cloud Tokenization provides security to customers’ transactions by converting sensitive payment information into tokens and storing them securely. Based on a flexible, standardized approach, cloud tokens can be enabled across all consumer devices and are directly integrated with the respective customer’s bank.

Digital payment modes have been gaining traction from the COVID-19 breakout, which prompted people to opt for contactless payments.

Effective today, select few Brazilian WhatsApp users will gradually start seeing the payment option on the app. Here they can set up an account by adding their Visa or Mastercard Inc. MA debit or credit card to enable remittances.

However, a WhatsApp Business app account will have to be created by small businesses to ease payment receipts from customers.

Brazil seems to be a vast payments market with 120 million monthly active users (MAUs). Its 10 million worth small and micro businesses breed a big business opportunity. Per Statistia, this Latin American country’s total transaction value in the digital payments segment is projected to reach $55 million in 2020. The same is estimated at $108.3 million by 2024, witnessing a CAGR of 18.4% between 2020 and 2024.

The payments market's largest segment is e-commerce with total transaction value projected at $32.8 million for 2020. Brazil is the first region to have been serviced by this facility. We believe that WhatsApp payment service will slowly but steadily be available in other countries too.

Provision of real-time payment solution via WhatsApp is an incredible achievement for Visa, which will fuel growth for its global transactions.

Visa has so far seen global transactions on Visa Direct surge approximately 70% amid COVID-19 crisis. With the addition of payments on WhatsApp, Visa Direct continues to bolster P2P services by leveraging all the major global digital platforms.

Visa has been picked by Facebook given the company’s relentless focus on innovation and its most reliable and secure payment network.

Year to date, the stock has gained 2.1% versus the industry’s decline of 1.3%.

Visa currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked stock in the same space is Green Dot Corporation GDOT which holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. The company’s bottom line surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average being 247.59%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

 

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