Mumbai, August 1: There is a new hurdle in the way of WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned instant messaging mobile service, as they won't be able to roll out their integrated payment solution in India, until the company sets up an office and have a team in India. As a result of which, now the priority for the company has changed, and they are planning to hire two senior profiles- India Head and Head of Policy, and set up an India team, according to an Economic Times report.

The report further quotes an anonymous official, who explains that WhatsApp doesn't have a team in India, there is no office, and considering payment is so critical, and they are not involved in payments with any other country, they don't have any confidence in the company.

Reportedly, WhatsApp has been beta-testing its Unified Payment Interface (UPI)-based payments service for the last few months. In an earnings call with analysts after reporting its Q2 2018 results, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company has been testing the payment feature on WhatsApp in India for some time. Earlier this year, WhatsApp launched a beta version of its Payments feature in India for nearly one million users. The company has also started working on building its payments service for other countries.

In India fueled by rumours caused by WhatsApp,  there has been a tremendous increase in lynching incidents. As a result of which, WhatsApp modified their safety rules, and now a user will be allowed to forward a message to only five other users or groups at a time. It also removed the quick forward option currently available with media messages.

“We believe these changes—which we’ll continue to evaluate—will help keep WhatsApp the way it was designed to be: a private messaging app,” the Facebook-owned company said in a blog post. This was in response to the Indian government's warning to the company to stop the circulation of “irresponsible and explosive messages filled with rumours and provocation.”

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 01, 2018 10:41 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).