WhatsApp, increasingly similar to WeChat: it already allows you to buy metro tickets in its most important market

WhatsApp continues to make merits for become a “superapp”. Gone are the days when the application was only used to chat and little else. Over the years, Meta has been transforming it. First, expanding the functions related to communication. Later, leading the application to become a trading platform.

When we say “super app”, we can’t help but think of WeChat. A kind of digital Swiss army knife that has become an almost indispensable tool for the daily life of millions of Chinese. With it they can, for example, send money to friends, make purchases and even pay for the metro. WhatsApp already allows all this in India, its main market.

WhatsApp has more and more functions

WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart has announced this Monday that the app now allows you to buy tickets for Namma Metro, Bangalore’s rapid transit system. The whole process is done from a window of a chat conversation. At checkout, users can choose to checkout using WhatsApp Pay (via local partner UPI) or other means of payment.

Once the process is complete, the Namma Metro chatbot displays a QR code that must be scanned by the validator at the metro station. Users can also buy passes, check rates and updated schedules directly from the application. “It is the first transportation service globally to launch QR ticketing service on WhatsApp,” said Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation.

At the moment, this novelty is available in Bangalore, but it is interesting to contemplate this type of Meta movements, which can be better understood if we put them in context. WhatsApp has over 400 million users in Indiawhich makes the country its main market, and an ideal place to roll out many functions that could later reach other countries.

Just over two months ago, WhatsApp took its in-app shopping experience to the next level in India. In addition to viewing the product catalog, adding to cart, ordering, users can also pay directly from the chat. In other words, a complete shopping experience is now offered with WhatsApp Pay.

Over time we will know if WhatsApp continues to add additional features on its way to becoming a “superapp”. But Meta’s app isn’t the only one with this ambition. For example, Uber is contemplating a multimodal approach and Elon Musk, now that he has closed the purchase of Twitter, has tools to launch “X, the all-in-one application”.

Images: Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC)