Stripe and WhatsApp have partnered to enable Singapore businesses to accept payments in WhatsApp chats.
With Stripe Connect and Stripe Checkout integrated into WhatsApp, Singapore customers and businesses can buy and sell directly in the Meta-owned messaging app using credit cards, debit cards and Singapore’s real-time payment system PayNow, the companies said in a Monday (May 8) press release.
“Starting today, people in Singapore can pay their local merchants on WhatsApp in just a few taps,” Meta Head of FinTech Stephane Kasriel said in the release. “This seamless and secure experience will transform the way people and businesses in Singapore connect on WhatsApp.”
With the new partnership between Stripe and WhatsApp, customers and businesses don’t have to go to another website, open another app or pay in person, according to the release.
The option to enable payments on WhatsApp is available to a small number of Singapore-based businesses now and will be expanded to many more in the coming months, the release said.
“The speed and convenience of payments through WhatsApp will help businesses expand their revenue streams with new channels and access a wider customer base,” Sarita Singh, regional head and managing director for Southeast Asia at Stripe, said in the release.
As PYMNTS reported Thursday (May 4), Meta is aiming to get in on the rise of chat-based ordering.
Last summer, the tech giant invested in Take App, a Singapore-based startup that offers conversational commerce solutions for restaurants and other businesses selling via WhatsApp. The startup offers an order form for sellers accompanied by order management and analytics tools.
The launch of the new offering in Singapore comes about a month after Meta began letting WhatsApp users in Brazil use the messaging app to pay local businesses.
In Brazil, the new feature — which was launched April 11 to a small number of businesses — lets users pay for goods and services via Mastercard and Visa debit, credit and prepaid cards issued by the banks participating in the service.
“We’re always working on new ways to unlock the potential of payments on WhatsApp,” Kasriel told PYMNTS in May 2022.