FB's Collaboration With Jio can bring "Small Business" In India Through WhatsApp.

Facebook Inc. chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg said his company’s partnership with Mukesh Ambani-controlled Jio Platforms will help the American tech giant bring “millions of small businesses” in India to its popular messaging app WhatsApp.

“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,” Zuckerberg

told analysts on the company’s

June quarter earnings call on Friday morning.

The head of the world’s largest social media network said he is

“excited about the opportunity”

here and that the company plans

to expand to other markets once

the platform is proved in India. 

“Once we prove that out with

Jio in India, we’re planning on

expanding it to more folds in

India and to other countries as

well,” Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg’s remarks are in line with Ambani’s earlier announcement that JioMart and WhatsApp will be working

closely in India. Reliance Jio started a WhatsApp-based service for JioMart earlier this year, allowing users to place orders on the platform through WhatsApp.

The messaging platform itself

announced, earlier this month, that it now has 15 million users on

WhatsApp Business in India, the chat platform’s business-facing part. Many of these are small

businesses.

WhatsApp is also close to bringing WhatsApp Pay, its UPI-based payments service, allowing it to offer a more holistic buying experience for customers.