Billionaires team up on Indian grocery delivery app

Technology giant Meta and Reliance Industries’ Jio Platforms have launched a grocery delivery app, called JioMart, that will use Meta’s WhatsApp messaging service.

In a joint statement issued this week, Meta and RI said that JioMart is a “global first” that will enable users in India to “browse through JioMart’s entire grocery catalog, add items to cart, and make the payment to complete the purchase – all without leaving the WhatsApp chat”.

Mark Zuckerberg, the Founder and CEO of Meta, said in a Facebook post: “This is our first-ever end-to-end shopping experience on WhatsApp – people can now buy groceries from JioMart right in a chat. 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.’

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries (and billionaire, like Zuckerberg), added: “Our vision is to propel India as the world’s leading digital society. When Jio platforms and Meta announced our partnership in 2020, Mark and I shared a vision of bringing more people and businesses online and creating truly innovative solutions that will add convenience to the daily lives of every Indian. One example of an innovative customer experience that we are proud of developing is the first ever end-to-end shopping experience with JioMart on WhatsApp. The JioMart on WhatsApp experience furthers our commitment of enabling a simple and convenient way of online shopping to millions of Indians.”