Earlier, there were reports about WhatsApp’s efforts to become a super app. Integrating with JioMart can be the beginning of this massive plan. Also, business messaging seems to be a new area of focus for Meta and could help the company make money from its messaging apps. “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,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a recent Facebook post announcing the partnership with JioMart. The way JioMart works in WhatsApp is straightforward. Users need to just send “Hi” to a certain WhatsApp number and start grocery shopping. If you’ve previously used Instacart bots, JioMart shopping process should seem familiar to you.
WhatsApp is looking to be a WeChat-style super app
When it comes to integrating other features into a messaging app, WeChat is the first name that comes to mind. It is one of the most successful examples of a well-designed super app that allows for things like paying rent, buying consert tickets, and buying food within the app beside the sole purpose of messaging. With over 2 billion global users and roughly 400 million users in India, WhatsApp can follow the same WeChat footprint and become a popular super app in the country and worldwide. Also, WhatsApp bears other benefits that many rivals often lack, including being free, consuming much less data, and running on even the cheapest devices. While preventing users from wandering between multiple apps and services to accomplish different tasks seems like a good idea, it can also be a double-edged sword. The in-app shopping experience is not new for WhatsApp, and the company has been working on it for quite a long time. However, implementing this plan on a global scale could be a huge risk because any malfunction or fraud can damage the messenger’s reputation. WhatsApp is not alone in integrating other features within its app. Spotify has recently started to sell concert tickets through its app.
