Brazil is the first country to get WhatsApp's digital payment service in the world. Users will be able to send money securely without leaving the app, paving the way for over 10 million small and micro businesses to accept payments instantly.

Facebook outlined its plans to offer the service in India, Indonesia and Mexico as announced by Mark Zuckerberg in January. Facebook is making its push into e-commerce in a big way this year as they also rolled out Facebook Shops in the US sometime in May.
What's interesting is, person-to-person payments will be free while businesses will have to pay a small processing fee to receive customer payments, similar to a credit card transaction.

Brazil has over 120 million WhatsApp users in Brazil, making it their second largest market after India, hence the decision to launch this service in Brazil as India's launch has been delayed by regulators.

Facebook plans to bring this service to everyone eventually, but how soon that is remains to be seen.

If you are in Brazil, you can visit www.whatsapp.com/payments/br to setup your WhatsApp payment.

Below is the full extract of Facebook's announcement:

We’re excited to announce that starting today we’re bringing digital payments to WhatsApp users in Brazil. People will be able to send money securely or make a purchase from a local business without leaving their chat.

The over 10 million small and micro businesses are the heartbeat of Brazil’s communities. It’s become second nature to send a zap to a business to get questions answered. Now, in addition to viewing a store’s catalog, customers will be able to send payments for products as well. Making payments simple can help bring more businesses into the digital economy, opening up new opportunities for growth.

In addition, we’re making sending money to loved ones as easy as sending a message, which could not be more important as people are physically distant from one another. Because payments on WhatsApp are enabled by Facebook Pay, in the future, we want to make it possible for people and businesses to use the same card information across Facebook’s family of apps.

We have built payments with security in mind and a special six digit PIN or fingerprint will be required to prevent unauthorized transactions. To start, we will support debit or credit cards from Banco do Brasil, Nubank, and Sicredi on the Visa and Mastercard networks – and we are working with Cielo, the leading payments processor in Brazil. We have built an open model to welcome more partners in the future.

Sending money or making a purchase on WhatsApp is free for people. Businesses will pay a processing fee to receive customer payments, similar to what they may already pay when accepting a credit card transaction.