Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and Mukesh Ambani’s Jio have completed the integration of messaging platform WhatsApp and JioMart, which has been in the works for over a year. The two companies had announced a pilot phase for the project last December, and Zuckerberg announced the full rollout shortly after Jio’s annual general meeting.
JioMart is the online grocery delivery platform run by Akash Ambani’s Jio Platforms Ltd, while WhatsApp is an instant messaging platform owned by Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). WhatsApp has been pushing its WhatsApp Business platform since last year, which allows commerce on the personal messaging platform. The integration between the two platforms has been underway since Facebook took a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms in April 2020 for ₹43,574 crore.
The JioMart service will now be available for all users through WhatsApp, where orders can be placed by contacting the service through the chat platform. Zuckerberg, co- founder and chief executive of Meta, said the integration is the “first ever end to end shopping experience on WhatsApp.”
“Business messaging is an area with real momentum and chat-based experiences like this will be the go-to way people and businesses communicate in the years to come,” he added.
Haptik, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot platform owned by Jio, will handle the chat operations of JioMart on WhatsApp.
JioMart made its first demo rollout on WhatsApp in April 2020, offering its services through a chat-based interface on the app in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan districts of Maharashtra. Last December, the service made its official pilot rollout, offering the service in more areas across India.
With the latest announcement, JioMart will now be accessible on WhatsApp across India. It will allow users to book orders and make payments directly from the chat platform.
According to statistics tracker Statista’s May 2022 report, WhatsApp has over 487 million users in India, while its January 2022 estimate pegged its monthly active user base in the country at 390 million.
Source: Entrackr