Our central bank is going to release a platform called PIX. Financial institutions with more than 500.000 clients are required to implement it. Finally we are going to have a standard across banks, and money transfers are going to be less complex, clunky and costly.
Of course, other apps have come before. We have apps like PicPay, PayPal and Nubank, just to name a few, that provide instant, free money transfers. Unsurprisingly, each one rolled out their own standard, but they had to register at the central bank as a financial institution. This means that, at least the popular ones, will have to provide compatibility with the central bank's platform.
This new WhatsApp feature, to me, looked like a bold attempt to kill PIX at launch. People wouldn't mind this new feature inside their banking app that already exists, for a few months, in the messaging app they're used to. If the average Brazilian user sees a QR code, is it a WhatsApp Pay QR code they see regularly? Or is it that obscure feature inside their banking app, which they didn't pay attention to? What would make more sense for businesses to adopt, for the sake of simplicity?
I'm glad Facebook will not get away with that one. If they're going to launch this feature, our central bank should make sure that it's compatible with the nationwide standard that's going to roll out. I'd rather not need Facebook to conveniently pay for my loaf of bread.
Edit: replaced "service" with "platform".
What are those difficulties you are expecting?
It's absurd that most of the world is hostage of a few credit card operators to do any kind of business. Nearly all the problems one has to receive payment today are caused by those.
You speak like the free-for-all tax tools didn't work for you. Do you rather the US model? where you have to pay $100~300 every year for exactly the same tools from a single private company that has a de facto monopoly because of close ties to the government?
Also, in the US, a transfer from your checking account (where you get your paycheck) to your credit card account (where credit card purchases show up) to pay up your monthly credit card bill, in the same bank, same client, you literally see both on the same screen on your internet bank, takes two to FIVE business day. Let that sink in when talking about US banking being archaic.
It will increase competition in the long run because if you want to open a payments fintech, you don't need to go in every bank or other fintech to do agreements about how your app will communicate with then, you just use the PIX to communicate with everyone.
Yes, let Facebook and Apple invent their own internet too, with no compatibility between them. Let's also allow Ford / GM to create their own roads exclusively for Ford / GM vehicles. /s
This is not businesses we are talking about, it's public infrastructure. And banking is a public infrastructure.
I don't think so. FB is using UPI in India, they could have used PIX too. Looks like Brazilian government was just a bit late to the payment party and FB had already implemented something in-house in the meantime.
If you need any app to pay for a loaf of bread, then you have far more deep seated systemic issues than "OMG Facebook!!".
You really think the Brazilian central bank is going to make a smooth, efficient, and cheap money transfer service? What reason do you have to expect that to work?
They will not do a transfer service, they will provide a specification that must be follow in order to provide instant payments and transfers.
To be honest, our central bank is pretty good in create such specifications.
So I have total confidence that they are capable of creating a better yet version of it.
Pix is an improvement over those systems (shorter processing times - as in seconds instead of minutes) and checks are almost nonexistent.
Brazil is pretty far ahead of the USA when it comes to money transfers, though I grant that this is a pretty low bar.
Here I just send an URL to my friend via whatsapp. They click on the link. The site takes care of giving user whichever payment method they desire. User pays. That's it.
From a user's perspective to pay I just have to click a link. And to get paid I just send a link. How easier can it get?
Works really well!
Here I just send an URL to the GIF to my friend via whatsapp. They click on the link. They look at the GIF. That's it.
From a user's perspective to see a GIF I just have to click a link. And to send one I just send a link. How easier can it get?
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I swear HN's community has the brightest minds yet so often it fails to understand simple user experience stuff (see the infamous Dropbox comment)
If Whatsapp controls the payment platform, they can prevent a lot of fraud by mining their meta data. For example, if the payment is marked as a gift, but the parties do not have a vibrant conversation, there is likely fraud.
> Bloomberg reports that WhatsApp was surprised by the Brazillian Central Bank’s decision, since the company had been in regular contact with the authority. WhatsApp had started a small test of the service in the country around a month prior to its launch.
In fact I see no sign of it in the app whatsoever. Must be a regional thing?
