Mark Zuckerberg Announces New Features for Indian Businesses: Conversations 2023

• The Meta Conversations 2023 conference was held in Mumbai on 20th September 2023.
  
• CEO Mark Zuckerberg called India a world leader in terms of adopting messaging as the better way to get things done.
  
• During his address, he announced new features for Indian Businesses – the launch of WhatsApp Flows, expanded payment capabilities in India, and Meta Verified for businesses.

Meta’s second annual business messaging event, ‘Conversations‘, was held in Mumbai on September 20, 2023. It focused on highlighting how businesses are connecting with people through messaging and the impact social media platforms like WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram have to get things done in the most innovative and efficient way. He also launched certain new features that will help elevate businesses in India.

Zuckerberg addressed the viewers of the global event virtually. Meta has been leading the shift in messaging. Mark said that the company is looking at building more tools for its messaging products — WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram DMs, based on the trends. This will be done by observing how people and businesses use these messaging apps.

“India (is) a country that’s at the forefront of a lot of what we’re going to talk about today. You’re (India is) leading the world in terms of how people and businesses have embraced messaging as the better way to get things done,” Zuckerberg said during the event. “This is how we’ve continued to innovate with our messaging formats, our group chats and broadcast channels,” he added.

Also Read: WhatsApp Channels By Meta Marks A New Era In Communication

WhatsApp & India

India has around 535.8 million daily active WhatsApp users, which makes it the most popular instant messaging app in the country. Through the WhatsApp realm, Indian entrepreneurs have been converging geographical distances, with their commitment. Meta is further upskilling 10 million traders in 29 States covering every corner of India in 11 languages for a period of 3 years.

But despite this, WhatsApp Pay was not a success in its operations when it was launched in 2020. In March 2022, the company received approval to run the UPI in India. A week later, WhatsApp recorded around 8-10 million transactions, with over 1.6 million users signing up every day. In April 2023, the company’s UPI saw 15 million transactions totaling a value of Rs. 1,300 crores. The volumes are mainly driven by three players: PhonePe, Paytm, and Google Pay.

New Features

“At Meta, we insist on looking beyond the horizon when it comes to connecting. Meta’s products are truly global including WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and the newly invented threads,” said, Sandhya Devanathan, Vice President, Meta India. Connecting with over 3.8 billion people around the world, Devanathan talks about how messaging and social media apps have driven their way into the Indian territory. She said, “Most Indians pick messaging as a preferred way to communicate with businesses. More than 200 million WhatsApp Business App users across the globe are using this app every month to grow and thrive.” 

Let’s take a look at the newly announced features:

Whatsapp Flows

During his address, Zuckerberg announced the launch of WhatsApp Flows, which is the newest offering on the messaging app that gives businesses the ability to create customised experiences within chat threads. The company is also expanding the ways people can pay for things within a chat thread. The Meta-owned messaging app has partnered with Razorpay and PayU to bring more payment options for the users. This move aims to encourage users to make purchases on the platform.

“So, for example, a bank can build a way for customers to book an appointment to open a new account, a food delivery service can build a way to place any order from any of their partner restaurants or an airline can build a way to check in for a flight and pick up a seat, all without having to leave the chat thread,” Zuckerberg said. The head of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart took to X (formerly Twitter) to talk about the incoming improvements.

Payments

Zuckerberg also announced another feature in this direction where consumers can pay for things within a chat thread using various payment options. This payment solution was first launched in Brazil and Singapore and is now being introduced in India. “With Payments in India, we’re going to support other payment methods as well, including all UPI apps. This is going to make it even easier for people to pay Indian businesses within a WhatsApp chat using whatever method they prefer,” Zuckerberg added.

Meta Verified

The Meta founder also announced the launch of Meta Verified for businesses using WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, which will be rolled out in the coming months. Letting people know that the businesses they are dealing with are completely authentic and validated is essential. The following benefits are offered to the businesses that subscribe to this feature:

• Verified Badge
• Account Support
• Impersonation Protection along with additional features

On WhatsApp, this would include premium features such as a custom web page and increased multi-device support.

After the well-received response on Whatsapp Channels, the app is on a roll with newer feature additions, especially targeted toward the Indian user base.