Facebook is the world's most evil company: Paytm founder
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of India's biggest mobile wallet firm Paytm, has called Facebook "the most evil company in the world." His upset remarks come in the light of Facebook-owned WhatsApp testing its new payment feature in India. He claims that WhatsApp Pay is insecure since it does not need a password or three-step authentication to make online and mobile payments.
Will WhatsApp Pay unfairly leverage India's UPI payment system?
Sharma also accused WhatsApp Pay, which is based on NPCI's real-time payment system UPI, of bringing on an unfair playing field for companies like Paytm. "Facebook is openly colonizing our payment system and is customizing UPI to their benefit. UPI was built as an India Stack, now some American monopoly arm-twists UPI for customer implementation," he said.
WhatsApp is killing the open UPI system: Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Some Industry veterans disagree with Sharma
Following Sharma's backlash, some industry veterans said that he is being against the very idea of Digital India. "There is clear record of private companies who got access first and exclusively when UPI was launched. Those complaining about WhatsApp are the same folks who refuse to entertain neutral payment options (like MobiKwik) on their websites/apps," Bipin Preet Singh, founder of digital wallet MobiKwik, said.
Paytm just being paranoid of competition?
WhatsApp Pay will clear the air once it goes live
WhatsApp Pay, which will let users send and receive money through the app, is still being beta-tested. According to media reports, the final product, to release by March, will adhere to all the guidelines of the National Payments Corporation of India. It should be noted that Sharma's remarks have already led to Neeraj Arora, VP of Business Development for WhatsApp, resigning from Paytm's board.
