Sridhar Vembu’s Zoho Corp has been busy lately. After widespread publicity of its Zoho office suite apps as well as the endorsement of Arattai’s major update, the company is now looking to get into the fintech sector. Zoho Pay, as the rumours say, is expected to offer a homegrown alternative to the likes of PhonePe, Paytm and Google Pay, offering a one-stop solution to all digital payment services.
The app, which is currently under development, is Zoho’s attempt to leverage the NPCI’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) network, which is currently considered one of the world’s robust digital payment ecosystems. Zoho’s existing infrastructure, which includes a payment-aggregator license and the provision of business payments through Zoho Business, provides a strong foundation for this consumer-centric UPI app.
Zoho Pay: What to expect?
Zoho Pay is expected to be a standalone app, similar to Paytm, PhonePe, Bhim and Google Pay. However, Zoho wants it to be more than just a PhonePe rival — it has its eyes set on WhatsApp.
Instead of offering it solely as a UPI-centric app, Zoho Pay will also be integrated into the Arattai messenger app. This means that Arattai members will be able to make UPI payments directly from within the app, using Zoho Pay’s infrastructure. This integration is expected to offer convenience and better customer engagement – a Arattai user won’t need to leave the chat window for making payments online.
This feature set will pit Arattai as a direct competitor to Meta’s WhatsApp, a platform that dominates this space.
As for the Zoho Pay app, some of the key features are expected to include the ability to send and receive money, trigger transactions, and pay bills. The app is expected to be available on both iOS and Android platforms, thus offering a better deal.
Zoho Pay is currently under development and is expected to be released in the coming months.
Arattai’s encryption for text messaging also a priority
On the other hand, Zoho is currently testing the end-to-end encryption for text messaging on Arattai. The app currently offers encryption for audio and video calls, and since consumers demanded inclusion of the same for text messaging, Zoho has been pushing to get the feature out to users.
Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu has stated that encryption for text messaging makes it easy on the company’s servers. Once it is rolled out, Arattai could pose a major threat to WhatsApp’s market domination in the country.
