Mukesh Ambani Uses WhatsApp to Break Amazon Grip on Indian Grocery Buyers
NDTV
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani makes Jiomart available on Whatsapp for grocery orders, a decision that comes 19 months after Meta Platforms Inc. -- which owns Whatsapp -- invested nearly $6 billion into Ambani's Reliance Jio Platforms unit.
Indians can now use WhatsApp to order groceries from billionaire Mukesh Ambani's JioMart via a new "tap and chat" option, as his Reliance Industries Ltd. challenges the domination of Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc.-owned Flipkart.
Delivery is free and there's no minimum order value, according to JioMart users who got WhatsApp shopping invites with a 90-second tutorial and catalog. Among the daily essentials on offer are fruits, vegetables, cereal, toothpaste and cooking staples like paneer cottage cheese and chickpea flour. Customers can fill their shopping baskets within the app and pay either via JioMart or in cash when receiving their order.
The move comes 19 months after Meta Platforms Inc., previously known as Facebook Inc., invested nearly $6 billion into Reliance's Jio Platforms unit. The service taps into the popularity of India's largest mobile operator, Jio, to reach users and relies on its biggest brick-and-mortar store chain, Reliance Retail, to execute delivery. WhatsApp has about 530 million users in the country -- Meta's biggest overseas base -- and Jio has more than 425 million subscribers.
Food and groceries are estimated to account for over half of the nation's retail spending, which is projected to reach as high as $1.3 trillion by 2025, according to Boston Consulting Group. Ambani's group has enhanced its position to capture a larger share of that market with the introduction of a no-frills $87 smartphone, which comes preloaded with the JioMart and WhatsApp apps, built in partnership with Alphabet Inc.'s Google. Like its U.S. partners and investors -- Google invested $4.5 billion into the company last year -- Jio has put a priority on getting more users connected and enrolled to use its services.
