I keep thinking about the informal merchant angle here. The payment redirect to a third-party UPI app is genuinely the only clunky step in that experience. If WhatsApp Pay can close that loop natively, the 0.65% figure starts to look like a starting line rather than a ceiling. The real race isn't against PhonePe, it's against the merchant habits PhonePe's business tools are building with those same sellers right now.
The issue is that small businesses (those that are too small to get loans from banks go the informal route through moneylenders. So, they have to pay high interest. If WhatsApp Pay steps in, they can give loans to such merchants at lower rates while still earning a profit through interest. I think that's the idea.
I keep thinking about the informal merchant angle here. The payment redirect to a third-party UPI app is genuinely the only clunky step in that experience. If WhatsApp Pay can close that loop natively, the 0.65% figure starts to look like a starting line rather than a ceiling. The real race isn't against PhonePe, it's against the merchant habits PhonePe's business tools are building with those same sellers right now.
Great breakdown
(I really didn't understand this MSMEs lending problem though)
The issue is that small businesses (those that are too small to get loans from banks go the informal route through moneylenders. So, they have to pay high interest. If WhatsApp Pay steps in, they can give loans to such merchants at lower rates while still earning a profit through interest. I think that's the idea.
Insightful