Meta Platforms and Jio Platforms have deepened their partnership in India with the launch of an “end-to-end shopping experience” on WhatsApp with Jio’s online grocery store JioMart.
JioMart on WhatsApp allows consumers to shop from JioMart within their WhatsApp chat. They can seamlessly browse through JioMart’s entire grocery catalog, add items to cart, and make the payment to complete the purchase – all without leaving the messaging app.
Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a joint statement that the service is the company’s first such end-to-end shopping feature 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 said.
“The JioMart on WhatsApp experience furthers our commitment of enabling a simple and convenient way of online shopping to millions of Indians,” Reliance Industries chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani said in the same statement.
Strategic partnership beyond JioMart
The launch is part of a strategic partnership between Meta and Jio Platforms to accelerate India’s digital transformation, as well as “provide people and businesses of all sizes opportunities to connect in new ways and fuel economic growth in the country,” according to the press release.
Meta invested $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms – the parent company of India’s leading telco, Reliance Jio – in 2020.
Both companies have also joined hands to develop immersive use cases for Reliance Jio’s 5G services, which will hit the market around the Diwali festival, which kicks off October 24.
Ambani said that Meta and Jio will work together to bring the benefits of immersive technology to everyone.
“We believe India’s vibrant digital ecosystem will play a critical role in shaping the metaverse and bring new possibilities in Education, Healthcare and Commerce 4.0,” he added.
Jio’s 5G tie-ups
Jio has been forging a string of new partnerships centred around its upcoming 5G services.
It has extended its partnership with Google to develop “ultra-affordable” 5G smartphones for India, and will also leverage Google Cloud to offer Jio’s Private 5G stack and other 5G-enabled solutions to both domestic and global users.
Jio also extended its partnership with Microsoft to expand the Azure ecosystem in India, especially for small and medium businesses.
Additionally, it has tied up with Intel to use its technologies for Jio’s cloud-scale data centres and 5G Edge locations, as well as in infrastructure for applications like AI.
Jio and Qualcomm will also work on cloud-native 5G infrastructure infrastructure in both the millimetre-wave (mmWave) and sub-6GHz bands to develop an ecosystem that can serve India and beyond.
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