Facebook aims to extend products, tech built with Jio to other markets

New Delhi: Facebook's mega Rs 43,574-crore pact with Reliance Jio will help the social media giant build products and technology that can be extended to other parts of the world, its Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said. He also said the social media giant aims to create a "much better shopping and commerce experience" in India working with JioMart by leveraging WhatsApp's communication and payments platform.

Last week, Facebook announced an investment of USD 5.7 billion (Rs 43,574 crore) in Jio Platforms.

"All the products and technology that we're building to enable that partnership (with Jio) are going to be things that we want to do around the world. So, we're excited about working with them to drive this vision forward and then extending it everywhere over the coming months and years," Zuckerberg said during an investor call.

He added that the company's strong balance sheet proved to be an "important asset" this quarter, enabling it to commit to a "long-term growth priority in India even in the midst of a troubled global economy".

Zuckerberg pointed out that the largest Facebook and WhatsApp users in the the world is in India.

"We think that there is an especially important opportunity to serve small businesses and enable commerce there over the long term. By bringing together JioMart, which is Jio's small business initiative to connect millions of shops across India with WhatsApp, we think that we're going to create a much better shopping and commerce experience," he said.

Zuckerberg said the focus is on helping small businesses have a presence on all of the apps -- Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and FB Messenger -- so that they can communicate organically with people and then, increasingly do things that can help them drive transactions.