Meta’s selection of CRED founder Kunal Shah to take the reins at its messaging subsidiary WhatsApp signals a broader push toward turning the app into a super app. The first major test for the new CEO will be gaining traction in India’s massive digital payments market.
India is WhatsApp’s largest user base, with more than 500 million users—roughly one-sixth of its global audience of more than three billion. Yet since launching WhatsApp Pay in 2020, the service has struggled to compete with rivals such as PhonePe and Google Pay. Together, those two platforms account for over 80% of transactions on the country’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) network, the government-backed payments system that underpins much of India’s digital economy.
According to Reuters, Shah is now tasked with changing that trajectory. He joins WhatsApp after founding CRED, a platform aimed at affluent Indian consumers with high credit scores, rewarding them for timely credit card payments. The company has about 17 million users and processes more than 40% of India’s credit card payments. However, its user base skews significantly more affluent than WhatsApp’s mass market audience.
Payments as the Foundation of a Super App
India’s payments ecosystem—anchored by UPI—gives WhatsApp a strong entry point as it pursues super app ambitions, with payments positioned as a core pillar. The market is also more lucrative than messaging alone.
“Payments are a way to generate transaction revenue and the key to growing an app into a super app that can handle daily money movement capabilities,” said Ben Danner, Senior Analyst of Debit at Javelin Strategy & Research. “WhatsApp will be able to leverage India’s UPI infrastructure, but they will compete with PhonePe, which has already evolved into a financial super app, as well as Paytm and Google. If they can figure out a way to monetize 500 million users, they will be in good shape.”
Hurdles Ahead
WhatsApp still lacks popular payment features like clear transaction tracking and user rewards, while its rivals have focused on building engagement through merchant partnerships and financial incentives like cash back.
The company has also faced regulatory challenges in India revolving around privacy concerns and encrypted communications.
