BENGALURU: Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the social network will expand the partnership with Jio platforms on WhatsApp to other commerce customers in India and will take the solution outside of India to other countries.
“A big part of the partnership that we have with Jio will be to wire up and get thousands of small businesses across India on-boarded onto WhatsApp, to do commerce there. And weâre really excited about the opportunity there. And once we prove that out with Jio in India, weâre planning on expanding it to more folks in India and to other countries as well,” Zuckerberg told analysts.
“Itâs very connected to what I was just talking about around messaging commerce. A lot of people use WhatsApp, especially in India, thereâs a huge opportunity to enable small businesses and individuals in India to buy and sell things through WhatsApp. We want to enable that. That starts with enabling payments,” he said.
In April, Facebook announced investments of $ $ 5.7 billion in Jio Platforms Limited, part of Reliance Industries Limited, making Facebook its largest minority shareholder. The deal with Jio allowed WhatsApp’s integration with JioMart to enable people to connect with businesses, shop and ultimately purchase products in a seamless mobile experience.
“It is the largest country by the size of our community that weâre serving already. And it should be one of the fastest growing business opportunities as well to help businesses grow there, and weâre very excited about that,” said Zuckerberg.