Meta is investing $6.000 billion in partnership with Reliance Jio, India's largest internet provider, to create Jio Mart, a platform that will allow users to search, shop and pay from WhatsApp.

India and Brazil are the two largest markets for WhatsApp. In these countries, the Zuckerberg application has replaced the landline phone as a means of communication both personally and professionally and commercially. And only in those two countries WhatsApp also works as a means of payment.

As the Meta announcement explains: “JioMart on WhatsApp will allow people in India, including those who have never shopped online, to easily search through JioMart's entire catalog of products. Buyers will be able to add items to their carts and make payments. The entire purchase operation without having to leave WhatsApp.”

WhatsApp is used by 487 million people in India and the purpose of Meta is to develop the application so that it can be used in the style of the Chinese multipurpose application WeChat, which in China is even used to pay for subway tickets. However, unlike WeChat which has the blessing of the Chinese government, Meta has had some difficulties with the Indian government.

Meta previously created Free Basics, with the aim of providing internet in India, but the Indian government – ​​which now only allows foreign companies to operate in the country if they are associated with a national firm – decided to close it down. Facebook has also had problems in the country. Instagram, however, has been growing ever since the Indian government decided to ban TikTok as well as other Chinese apps.
In 2020 Meta bought 9,99% of Reliance Jio for US$5.700 billion. The first step for its plans to become an e-commerce platform in the most populous country in the world. Without a doubt, this is a big step forward for Meta. However Zuckerberg will have to move very carefully to avoid conflicts with the government of Narendra Modi, a nationalist and authoritarian leader who has censored Facebook and WhatsApp on more than one occasion.
If this commitment to WhatsApp e-commerce is successful, it is only a matter of time before the idea is reproduced in Brazil.
Although Zuckerberg has installed the idea that his company is now focused on
creation of the metaverse, the truth is that its current priorities are advertising and e-commerce. The tech news site The Verge has just announced a new Meta project. It is about the creation of a group called New Monetization Experiences. This group led by the until now head of Meta research, Pratiti Raychoudhury, will be in charge of identifying and building possible monetizable interactions for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. John Hegeman, who will be Raychoundry's deputy, told The Verge that "we see opportunities to build new types of products, features and experiences that people are willing to pay for." Although he did not want to detail what they are thinking.
Meta's revenue comes almost entirely from its advertising business and while it already has a few paid features in its apps, it has so far not put much emphasis on charging users for services. According to Hegeman, this is not essential in the short term, but it will be important in the next five years.
Facebook group administrators can charge for exclusive content and virtual "stars" can be purchased to be sent to creators. WhatsApp charges certain businesses to send messages to their customers. Instagram recently announced that creators can start charging a subscription for exclusive content. In June Zuckerberg announced that his company will not take a percentage of these transactions until 2024.