MUMBAI: It seems Facebook has great ambition for e-commerce and small business in India. While speculations have been rife on the scope of the social media giant’s investment in Mukesh Ambani’s Jio, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg keeps emphasising on small businesses and a better shopping experience.

“One aspect of online commerce I want to mention is the partnership we just announced with Jio Platforms in India. The largest Facebook and WhatsApp communities in the world are in India, and we think there's 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 be able to create a much better shopping experience. There's a lot more we can do here and I'm looking forward to making progress with the team at Jio,” he commented in an earnings call after announcing q1 results.

He also mentioned that there are millions of small businesses and shops across India and they want to try to help them get on a single network to communicate through Whatsapp and make online payment through WhatsApp. The Facebook CEO added that it is a great example of how they can wire up and help small businesses in the country where they have the largest WhatsApp community.

“But certainly all the products and technology that we’re building to enable that partnership are going to be things we’re going to want to do around the world,” he added.

Recently, Facebook made an investment of Rs 43,574 crore into Jio Platforms, translating into a 9.99 per cent equity stake in it on a fully diluted basis. Now, along with a strong local ally, it becomes one of the largest contenders in the e-commerce battle with Amazon and Flipkart. While Jio disrupted the telecom industry, it is unsure yet as to how the JioMart- Whatsapp force will unravel.