Competition Intensifies For India's Digital Payments Market: Amazon India Poaches WhatsApp Pay India Head
Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META), owned WhatsApp's India payment business head Manesh Mahatme quit after more than a year to join Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) Amazon India.
Mahatme has joined as director of products in the e-commerce division of Amazon India, Reuters reports.
The exit coincided with WhatsApp's plans to ramp up its payments service in a highly competitive market.
The key players include Alphabet Inc's (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google Pay, Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) Ant Group-backed Paytm, and Walmart Inc's (NYSE: WMT) PhonePe.
During Mahatme's stint at WhatsApp Pay, it won regulatory approval to surpass its payments offering to 100 million users in India, the report added.
He joined WhatsApp Pay in April 2021. Mahatme was previously on the board of Amazon Pay India between 2014 and 2021.
WhatsApp rolled out cashback rewards this year to lure more Indians to its peer-to-peer payments service.
Earlier PhonePe shared plans to acquire two wealth management firms for a total enterprise value of $75 million.
The value of digital payments in India will likely increase threefold from the current $3 trillion to $10 trillion by 2026.
Price Action: META shares traded lower by 0.17% at $141.88 on the last check Thursday.
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