WhatsApp has more than 500 million users in India, though regulators there have capped its in-app WhatsApp Pay service to only 100 million people. People shopping on WhatsApp could also pay using popular services like Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google Pay, Paytm (PAYT.NS) and Walmart's (WMT.N) PhonePe but only after being redirected outside WhatsApp. Payments via those rival services - and any others that run on India's instant money transfer system UPI - will now be possible directly within WhatsApp, Meta said in a blog post. While WhatsApp Pay users will remain capped in India, there is no such limit on the number of users permitted to transact with businesses on WhatsApp using the other methods, a Meta spokesperson said. With some 300 million people spending about $180 billion via India's using UPI each month, the new transaction options could serve as a powerful lure to attract businesses to pay Meta for access to WhatsApp users.

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Persons: Dado Ruvic, WhatsApp, Meta, Mark Zuckerberg's, Mukesh Ambani, Aditya Kalra, Katie Paul, Munsif Vengattil, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: REUTERS, Meta, Google, UPI, Facebook, Thomson Locations: India, WhatsApp, Chennai, Bangaluru, New Delhi, New York