This archive report was first published on 16 June 2020.
Facebook has rolled out its digital payments system, Facebook Pay, on WhatsApp in Brazil, marking a significant expansion of the service after initial trials in India.
Launched on June 16, 2020, Facebook Pay allows users to send money between themselves for free, while businesses receiving payments are charged a small fee.
According to Facebook, the service is now available to people across Brazil, with the company indicating that it will be rolled out to more countries after successful trials.
The implications of launching Facebook Pay in Kenya would be significant for Safaricom, which has maintained a firm grip on money transfer and digital payments through its flagship platform M-Pesa.
Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, visited Kenya in September 2016 to benchmark mobile money applications, including M-Pesa.
“I’m here to meet with entrepreneurs and developers and learn about mobile money, where Kenya is the world leader,” Zuckerberg said during his visit.
Prof Bitange Ndemo, a Kenyan academic, has warned that the new digital payment system could be a nightmare for existing mobile money transfer platforms.
“It is only through such innovations that there will be competition, which is healthy in cutting costs,” Ndemo said.
Facebook has also unveiled a cryptocurrency called Libra, which has been fiercely resisted, even in the United States.
