Founder of Paytm is not happy with WhatsApp's UPI (Unified Payments Interface) payment feature. At present, Paytm is the leading wallet app in India and WhatsApp is its major competitor. It doesn't help that WhatsApp's payment service, which recently rolled out in India, has the simplest user interface compared to other payment apps.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of Paytm, feels WhatsApp has been given an edge over other payment apps, as it does not require a log-in session and Aadhaar-based payments. Sharma told ET that he will approach the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), architects of UPI, to highlight this issue.
Sharma also added that the absence of a login option makes WhatsApp payments a security risk. “How can you give such a security risk just in the name of underwriting that banks have given. WhatsApp is used by gullible Indian consumers far more than any other application in the country."
Taking to his Twitter page on Wednesday, Sharma also added that India should not allow global tech companies to "colonise our Internet."
“India must welcome global tech companies,” Sharma tweeted. But “it must not let them colonise our Internet. Their ambitions and intentions are clear in last few weeks,” he added.
"After failing to win war against India’s open internet with cheap tricks of free basics, Facebook is again in play. Killing beautiful open UPI system with its custom close garden implementation. I am surprised, champions of open @India_Stack , let it happen," he wrote in another tweet.
WhatsApp is owned by Facebook.
However, not everyone agrees with Sharma. Kunal Shah, founder and former CEO of e-payments company Freecharge, took a dig at Sharma writing that "All companies threatened by Whatsapp payments are going to tag it as anti national and try to pull it down as it’s hard to win on merit against network effects of Whatsapp."
Air India’s business class offering
The tea and coffee service
The headquarters of Air India and Air India Express in Gurugram
The airline’s first and business class soft furnishings
The JRD Tata portrait at Air India’s headquarters
Campbell Wilson with N Chandrasekaran at the rebranding launch
