Jio-WhatsApp model can go global for small biz: Zuckerberg – Times of India

BENGALURU: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the JioMart-WhatsApp partnership can help the Silicon Valley-based social media giant build products for small businesses that can be taken to other markets across the world. Zuckerberg said India offered an ‘especially important opportunity’ to serve small businesses and enable commerce here over the long term.
“So I think that is a great, very large example of how we can wire up and help small businesses in the country where we have the largest WhatsApp community. But certainly, all the products and technology that we’re building to enable that partnership are going to be things that we want to do around the world,” he said on the analyst call while announcing Facebook’s first-quarter earnings ending March 2020.
Earlier this month, Facebook invested $5.7 billion in Reliance’s Jio Platforms. Jio has since then started piloting its commerce initiative via WhatsApp in Mumbai suburbs.
Separately during its results on Thursday, Reliance said that JioMart is already helping kiranas during lockdown with supplies and seeing an order spike. “Daily orders grew by 4x during the lockdown period as kirana partners focused on serving their neighborhoods during the time of crises,” the company said in its media statement. JioMart has already started taking orders in Mumbai suburbs through WhatsApp.
The Facebook founder also indicated that payments will be made through WhatsApp, which has over 400 million monthly active users in India. “There are millions of small businesses and shops across India, and they want to try to help get them onto a single network that you’ll be able to communicate with through WhatsApp and do payments online through WhatsApp,” Zuckerberg said. Before taking analyst questions, he mentioned the JioMart and WhatsApp partnership is ‘going to be able to create a much better shopping experience.’
WhatsApp’s much-awaited payments service is expected to get a green signal in the next two months after being in beta mode for about two years now. WhatsApp Pay is restricted to one million users in India. On April 28, TOI reported saying WhatsApp is also looking at lending here through partnerships once it gets final nod for payments services.
WhatsApp’s global head Will Cathcart told TOI last year that it sees India as the future of WhatsApp and this market remains at the centre of what it does strategically. Facebook’s large investment for a minority stake in Jio Platforms amid a pandemic-hit economy is further a sign of importance the company attaches to this market. Together on the FB group platforms–Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, it has over 700 million users, with noticeable overlap, in India.
“There’s a lot more we can do here and I’m looking forward to making progress with the team at Jio,” Zuckerberg added on WhatsApp-led commerce opportunity in India.

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