iWorld
WhatsApp Pay goes live in India
KOLKATA: In what could be a turnaround for India’s payments market, WhatsApp Pay has gone live today. WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook has been developing the payment feature for a while now, but regulatory hurdles were not easy to overcome.
The WhatsApp payment feature has been designed in partnership with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) using the Unified Payment Interface (UPI). To carry out transactions via the messaging app in India, it’s necessary to have a bank account and debit card. WhatsApp sends instructions to banks that initiate the transfer of money via UPI between sender and receiver bank accounts. People can send money on WhatsApp to anyone using a UPI supported app.
The Indian digital payments market is already saturated with homegrown platform Paytm, big players like Google Pay, PhonePe, Amazon Pay, as well as a dozen other start-ups. But an enormous growing user base of 400 million, and a market value projected to reach $1 trillion in the next three years inspires confidence of having more than a fighting chance among new entrants like WhatsApp. Plus, the messaging app already enjoys immense popularity in the country, which also happens to be its largest market.
Starting today, people across India will be able to send money through WhatsApp This secure payments experience makes transferring money just as easy as sending a message. pic.twitter.com/bM1hMEB7sb
— WhatsApp Inc. (@WhatsApp) November 6, 2020
“In the long run, we believe the combination of WhatsApp and UPI’s unique architecture can help local organizations address some of the key challenges of our time, including increasing rural participation in the digital economy and delivering financial services to those who have never had access before,” the company stated in a blog post.
Just like every feature in WhatsApp, payments is designed with a strong set of security and privacy principles, including entering a personal UPI PIN for each payment, the app’s developers added. Payments on WhatsApp is now available for people on the latest version of the iPhone and Android app.
iWorld
Banijay Asia’s The 50 tops OTT charts with 8.1 million JioHotstar views
Reality competition becomes most watched show on JioHotstar in debut week.
MUMBAI: Fifty contestants walked into a palace, but millions of viewers showed up for the drama. Reality competition The 50, produced by Banijay Asia, has emerged as the most watched show on JioHotstar, clocking 8.1 million views in its debut week. The figure, reported by Ormax Media, places the show at the top of the OTT viewership charts and marks a strong opening for the digital reality format.
Adapted from a popular French format, The 50 brings together 50 personalities from television, digital platforms, music and reality shows inside a grand palace setting. Over the course of a 50 day competition, participants form alliances, compete in unpredictable tasks and navigate eliminations as the field steadily narrows.
Guiding the game is a mysterious figure known as The Lion, an unseen game master whose voice introduces twists, challenges and strategic turns throughout the show, adding an extra layer of suspense to the contest.
What distinguishes The 50 from typical reality competitions is its audience driven prize structure. Instead of the winner taking home the final reward, the prize is awarded to one of the winner’s registered followers through the show’s dedicated app. The mechanism effectively turns viewers into participants, allowing fans to have a direct stake in the outcome.
The contestant lineup features a mix of television actors, reality stars and digital creators, including Karan Patel, Urvashi Dholakia, Divya Agarwal, Mr Faisu and Dushyant Kukreja, each bringing their own fan following to the show.
With its blend of celebrity personalities, strategic gameplay and interactive viewer participation, The 50 has quickly carved out a strong foothold in India’s digital entertainment landscape. Its 8.1 million views in the opening week underline the growing appetite for large scale reality formats designed specifically for OTT audiences.
