After being in the rumors for the last few months, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has finally launched the Whatsapp Payments service. Just like WhatsApp Business, the Whatsapp Payments is also limited only to the Indian users. As rumors suggested, the WhatsApp Payments is based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). With the UPI, the transactions can be made instantly between any two UPI accounts. While WhatsApp is new to the payments service, other instant messaging apps like WeChat and Line already became popular in the payments space with the WeChat Pay and Line Pay respectively. The Hike Messenger is the first instant messaging app to make use of UPI for integrating payment services. WhatsApp currently has more than 1.5 billion monthly active users worldwide. With 200 million monthly active users, India is the largest market for WhatsApp. We expect the immense popularity of the Facebook-owned company will make it one o
Jio Phone, Free With Rs. 1,500 Deposit, Unlimited 4G Data, Launched by Mukesh Ambani at Reliance AGM
JioPhone made a splash at the Reliance AGM on Friday as Mukesh Ambani took the covers off the long-rumoured 4G feature phone. The handset, introduced as "India ka Smartphone" and launched at an "effective price" of Rs. 0 (though buyers will have to shell out a refundable, upfront deposit of Rs. 1,500 for the device). JioPhone will be crucial for the company in tapping the estimated 50 crore feature phone users who have not been able to join the Jio 4G bandwagon because of the high costs associated with smartphones. Although Reliance Jio launched in India in September, the company's offering has been restricted to smartphone users as it is a 4G only network, and to make calls, a phone has to support the VoLTE technology, which is usually not found on basic phones. The company aims to change that with the JioPhone, which comes with 4G VoLTE support. The JioPhone will include access to apps like JioCinema, JioTV, and JioMusic. JioPhone release date and other avai