Over 2 lakh SMBs in India use WhatsApp ads to reach customers: Ravi Garg, Director Business Messaging, Meta India 

How many SMBs are reaching out to WhatsApp to expand their business, engage customers?

 Over 200 million small businesses globally use small business app. On an average, we see almost 600 million people engage with businesses on a daily basis. In India, more than 2 lakh businesses regularly spend money to drive the demand on WhatsApp alone.

Why WhatsApp business is opting to focus more on SMBs?

 If you talk about the future of India in terms of the 3-8 trillion economy that the government is forecasting, 30-40 per cent of that GDP will be driven through small businesses. The only way these small businesses can survive and grow is when they become digital. Also, earlier SMBs couldn’t do business beyond their neighbourhood but today we feel small businesses will drive growth through digitisation. For large businesses, we have an API driven platform. I don’t think small businesses have technical capabilities to really run a CRM system and do the tech-heavy tech lifting that a large business needs. They may not even need such automated systems since APIs are required where a business has lakhs or crores of customers as their customers. A small business may have only 200-500 users. So it doesn’t need such an evolved API as a tech platform.  

How are you using AI agents?

 We are launching AI agents on WhatsApp’s small business app. We are building an AI within the app where it will take over when a user tries to communicate with the business and the people are busy. It will talk to the customer to guide through a purchase, complete the transaction and then the small business can deliver. We are investing on large businesses, but we are equally investing on small businesses to grow the business.  

Are you trying to help them create personalised ads in terms of messaging? 

 Yes, the AI can run customised campaigns. Say, I have customers who regularly shop from me and I have their database. The business can run campaigns with these customers.

Meta has faced some changes in terms of its data sharing policy since November in India. Has that impacted the SMB activity?

 The matter is subjudice (before the Tribunal) and we cannot comment further on this. However, our focus remains on finding a path forward that supports the millions of businesses that depend on our platform for growth and innovation as well as providing high-quality experiences that people expect from WhatsApp. Very soon, there will be data protection guidance which will be about privacy and user data protection. We are working towards being compliant to that.

How do you address concerns around scams and deepfakes? 

 We have launched Meta Verified, a blue tick feature. If you get a large business, you will be able to see two blue ticks next to the display names,which means that Meta has verified that business. We have launched that same service for small businesses. It’s a subscription service, starting at ₹639/ month for SMBs.