'Iska kya achaar daalenge?' Shark Tank fame Ashneer Grover trolls WhatsApp pay

Ashneer Grover slams WhatsApp Pay as a biggest failure.

New Delhi: BharatPe cofounder and Shark Tank season 1 judge Ashneer Grover has slammed WhatsApp Pay as the biggest failure in India as a tech product. He said WhatsApp is a widely used app in India and it is convenient for users to send money on the platform by using UPI. He called it as easy as sending pic. However, it has failed to capture the mass users and become a major UPI payment app in India. He further said that it should have beaten other UPI-enabled Payment services PayTm, PhonePe, and Google Pay. However, country managers can’t win the market due to bad marketing.

“Everyone has @WhatsApp on their phone - sending money on WA using UPI is as easy as sending pic. It should have beaten @Paytm @PhonePe @GooglePay. Country managers can’t win you markets - good riddance now,” he tweeted.

WhatsApp Pay has to be the biggest failure in India as a tech product. Everyone has @WhatsApp on their phone - sending money on WA using UPI is as easy as sending pic. It should have beaten @Paytm @PhonePe @GooglePay . Country managers can’t win you markets - good riddance now ! — Ashneer Grover (@Ashneer_Grover) November 16, 2022

Criticizing the organization managers for publishing useless ads, he said: “Yeh ad hi dekh lo - iska kya acahar daalega koi customer - itni ad WhatsApp Pay ki kar lete instead. Public policy uncle aur vakil babu dhanda chalayenge to aisa hi hoga.”

Yeh ad hi dekh lo - iska kya acahar daalega koi customer - itni ad WhatsApp Pay ki kar lete instead. Public policy uncle aur vakil babu dhanda chalayenge to aisa hi hoga pic.twitter.com/CxSNv8LJmq — Ashneer Grover (@Ashneer_Grover) November 16, 2022

However, many Twitter users don’t support his narrative. Several users have replied that it’s not their primary business model. Hence, it didn’t focus primarily on UPI payment business.

One user wrote, “They came late & haven’t done anything new. Not only WhatsApp Pay, even Amazon UPI Pay is also failure. The reason for this is that Payment & Finance is not their primary business.”

Another user replied, “Not their focus area for business model. Simple. They are already generating revenue from WhatsApp business.”

BharatPe does not do consumer payments - it’s a merchant service — Ashneer Grover (@Ashneer_Grover) November 16, 2022

Questioning about the lack of reference of Bharat Pe from the list that could have been beaten by WhatsApp Pay, he replied that Bharat Pe doesn’t do consumer payments – it’s a merchant service.