Whatsapp Business, Instagram, Scams, Tech & Content Creators - VP Meta India | FO 123 Raj Shamani

you get a video call from an unknown. caller the moment you pick up the call. the other person starts getting naked or. starts talking about some random things. and then they record the whole the whole. video call and then they blackmail you. how do I make my WhatsApp experience. safer so we actually took down I think. if I'm not mistaken 75 lakh accounts. this month we've invested like $16. billion on this since 2016 a lot of. people are saying that now if you're. running ads on Faceook Facebook and.

Instagram you're just making meta Rich. you're not actually making money. yourself we don't want to repeat from a. business that's not finding value from. us there are a lot of people who are. impersonating me on Instagram and a lot. of other creators and they try to sell. random things on our name you're. probably a verifi you're verified you. now verification everybody can get. welcome to the new episode of figuring. out in today's episode we've tried to. understand from the top leader of meta.

India Facebook pay. opportunities WhatsApp how can you use. in your small business and expand your. business what are the opportunities that. you are missing if you're not leveraging. Instagram Facebook the hacks to crack it. how to grow your business exponentially. and so many more things in today's. episode we've tried to understand. whether the Creator economy will last or. no or do do you think that Facebook.

Instagram and WhatsApp help. through and the most important question. of the day that if you are advertising. on Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp. do you make money or do you lose money. and if you want to make money how to. make that so many important questions. for small businesses creators how to. grow in India and Leadership how how can.

you join as a normal employee and become. the vice president of one of the biggest. companies in the world so today's. episode is with vice president of meta. India sandya D Natan before you start. watching the show please subscribe to. rajamani clips and rajamani shorts. Channel because there we put uncut clips. from this episode and in short amount of. time we make you a better leader enjoy. the show.

[Music]. thank you so much actually for taking. out time and coming here it's an. absolute privilege because I'll tell you. a very personal. story I was a very successful second. generation entrepreneur before I started. my Creator Journey back there before. pandemic with my family and I was there. and there was something which happened. back then and I I thought that okay I'm.

going to leave my house and I'll come to. Mumbai and I'll be on my own I'll build. something of my own and I got separated. from a family business I started from. scratch okay so whereas I had a I had a. business worth millions and I was having. fun I went down to zero and I started. from scratch like absolute zero I didn't. take out I didn't have. money and all of it in last 2 years 2. and a half years since the time I've. become like a full-time Creator I think. my life turned around and thanks to.

Instagram like for real I don't think I. would have gotten power I don't think I. have any other skill I don't think that. uh it was possible to even think about. leaving a house and starting to build. something on my own at the age of 24. when everything was super comfortable. for me I think Instagram gave me that. courage firstly thank you for sharing. that super inspiring right and the one. thing I would say is stories like that. are the reason why a lot of us work at.

meta right we hear these and you know. what you just said which is you firstly. you know you started off at 24 restarted. and you're as successful as you are now. that itself is inspiring uh but the fact. that our platform you know helped you. find that voice find the audience and of. course you have something really I I was. I was looking at the one that you did. earlier with uh the Airbnb Chief just. recently and it was really uh you know. you learn from all of that I know where.

my next vacation spot is going to be so. I would say that uh you know this is. incredible what you do and we're just as. excited to be able to provide that. platform thank you so I'm happy to be. here I'll tell you one thing about me. right I I'm I'm similar just like you. were like okay get up 8 to8 work work. work work work because I'm also away. from my family right now my parents are. in indor I'm not married yet I don't. have any responsibilities so all my life. is work because this is what I love.

doing this is what I enjoy doing this. give me sense of purpose I feel like. we're inspiring the nation like there. are so many things that you know we and. as an entrepreneur As Leaders right you. will believe in. this if you're doing good job and you. see even one life changing you fill. yourself with ideas that every day you. want to change this life yeah right and. then you just dedicate yourself in doing. work work work work work so I do that. but there are times that I don't want to.

take break or exhaustion but I get super. like I get an afternoon slump like it's. like every morning if I'm if I'm awake. at like 700 a.m. or 10:00 a.m. like 7 to. 10 anytime if I'm awake I know that. around 300 p.m. 5 400 p.m. I like my. energy goes down like it's just is it. related to Fitness is it Rel like over. the time I get it or just generation I. have no idea but like is this time it. gets super super difficult for me to. focus on straight jacket 3M now right I.

need Red Bull for. that but I'll tell you honest that's why. I keep red bulls usually this these days. here ke if and I used to wake up at like. 11: and I'm like in my my rhythm is more. I'm a night worker than morning I work. at evening hours more than but because. of now the schedule I have to start. working at during the day because the. team expects you to be at the office at. 9:30 and 10 and like you want to do it. but then Red Bull saves me because then.

I'm like okay I want to sometimes when. I'm super tired fter coffee saves me in. the morning and and and ginger chai It's. a question since the time I've heard. this that rebranding has become. something cool like everybody's. rebranding themselves trying to get in a. bettered of things right Facebook became. meta right uh Twitter did X and Google. was alphabet everybody's trying to like. it is like a trend in Silicon Valley and. everybody's doing it what's the purpose. like why do you Rebrand yourself what's.

the larger Vision because it was great. right people know you people know you by. the name of Facebook and I'm sure even. today now that obviously meta has been. super successful in changing the name. very quickly but I genuinely believe. that a far majority of people who still. know you as for Facebook not as meta so. it's timec consuming it's expensive it's. like again you have to take a mind share. of people why do rebranding at first and. what's the purpose why do you think.

Facebook did it look I think different. companies can have different reasons why. they do uh why they Rebrand but I can. talk to you about us right and look I. joined a company that was Facebook and. is now meta right so uh in both cases I. ble blue so that's that's great but the. one thing I would say is we were at an. inflection point in our company where um. you know when when we unveiled the brand. brand name and the rebranding exercise. also uh remember what we announced at. that point which is our fora to uh the.

metaverse which we've always said will. be the next embodiment of the internet. you know and will be potentially a. decade or more away but that we wanted. to invest in that uh you know immersive. uh version of the internet and look I. don't know if you've tried the quest or. the quest Pro um our virtual reality. headsets I know but I'm not tried yet. okay next time we do a podcast I'm going. to come with a with a question but I. think the thing that I would say is that.

when you try you're transported it's. still you know early days for uh for VR. but make no mistake like with uh you. know competitors entering the field it. becoming you know the devices hopefully. the costs will come down we've announced. a headset coming in the fall at a much. lower price point so our vision was. really to enable that uh that. technologically enabled immersive. version of the internet in the future. and Facebook didn't just capture where. we were headed to because by then our.

platforms had also expanded there was. Facebook there was Instagram there was. WhatsApp there was Quest right um and. now there's threads right um so I think. it was also a way for us to think about. collectively where we were going as a. company we started as Facebook but we. were heading to the Future as meta so. there was a deeper meaning behind just. the name uh and and the rebranding that. happened from Facebook to meta talking. about other companies they may have you.

know similar reasons but or you know. other reasons lots of times you know. companies Rebrand because they've. outgrown what they started with right um. and it's a Natural. Evolution but that would be my take on. it okay tell me what do you think is the. most fascinating technology or a device. coming in near future people have talked. about smart glasses right uh and not. like a Minority Report smart glasses but. you know things that can actually help. in a your Aid you I think that is right.

now bulky but that's the beauty of. Technology right as more and more. companies invest in the space as uh you. know it gets lighter as the technology. evolves you know that could also be um. interesting but for now I'll tell you. very practically and I'm missing it very. much is my uh you know. Smartwatch that has been life-changing. and forcing me to you know get out. exercise yes uh you know I don't have.

mine with me right now and I'm feeling. the Gap there you go I know I was. looking at yours and I was thinking. what's like those and in India's I. believe fast trackers and various other. watches are selling like hot cakes and. people are really taking to it as well. so it's a so do you know about yes. I've heard of right you heard of. so it's not available in India right. now so I saw it in one of the other. podcast by someone and and I just F.

found it fascinating I started searching. about it more and I ordered it and then. I ordered it because I saw one of the. one of my podcasters like guests there. was Cars 24's founder Vikram he was. wearing it and it looks super cool I'm. like and I explain I try to understand. what does they do this and that he's. like it'll it will track your daily. sleep and strain level so it'll tell you. when to sleep what time to wake up and. stuff like since the I'm have this on. oh my God I'm bombarded with.

notifications every day it teaches me. that you have to sleep right now you. have to like I have a terrible sleeping. schedule so your teacher yeah it's this. whoop is my teacher is it's very. interesting and fascinating I think all. the other watches have tried they give. you XYZ things and it's great I think. works best for me because the only. thing I want to track is my sleep. because I don't sleep at all like 4. hours a day max but now what has. done it's time to go to bed and the.

moment W said it makes me guilty that I. can't work anymore so even if let's say. I'm not getting my optimal eight hours. but the moment gives me a. notification I try to shut down. everything in next 30 to 45 minutes and. then I close down you just sold me. yeah all right whoop my commissions come. on guys I. know but no it works out really well. okay WhatsApp question India a lot of. people say is a trust deficit country. right usually really people I kind of.

disagree with this but I'm just talking. about a macro right people say that it's. very difficult for Indians to trust each. other and it's very difficult for people. to especially when it comes to payments. numbers and things like that did you. face this problem when you introduce. WhatsApp because people were like in the. beginning they were not trusting your. platform for maybe sharing the images. sharing the videos sharing video calls. or now the payments I think you've. started with. you can directly do the payments and.

there's a WhatsApp business there are. multiple things so there's whole. ecosystem of WhatsApp business that's. going on a lot of privacy as well did. you face that problem in India like a. trust deficit problem look I I would say. um I think I I can't talk to you know uh. when we first set up because if I look. at whatsapp now it's uh um like like we. discussed it's a word right you know I. wake up to good morning messages from my. uh family and I go to bed if I haven't. responded from Angry messages from them.

saying good morning reply so so you know. you I feel like it's it's in the fabric. of uh a I would wager a bet that most. people that you know use a messaging. platform of some sort may also use. WhatsApp along with you know the others. that are out there uh so I would say. that what I have noticed is that people. use WhatsApp very effectively to message. friends family I think forming groups.

sharing pictures videos all of that. happens because it's private and that's. why if you think about the private. messages between you and you know your. your friend uh you know that that's. encrypted your private messages are. always encrypted right and you know that. that's only between that's this you know. personal space between the two of you uh. so I think that's helped a lot in terms. of you know um our focus on privacy and. not breaking that encryption when when. two people talk to each other especially.

when it's family or friends um I think. the second part that I think you know. what I've seen at least is how. comfortable Indians are in talking to a. business right so it's so uh this could. be a kirana store person sending a. message it could be from their personal. account or they've downloaded the. WhatsApp uh business app that SMB app. which is free for everyone to use but. sending the catalog uh you know getting. list ready taking a point ments all of. that I've that has been a pretty big.

surprise to me since I moved here like. how much is actually happening on. WhatsApp I myself right um use WhatsApp. to I probably discover a ton on. Instagram and sometimes I'll buy on. Instagram messaging as well uh but a lot. of the action has also moved to WhatsApp. for me from Instagram to Whatsapp the. other bit that I've seen is also it. helps when you know large businesses use. WhatsApp to further uh uh uh forther. their uh their services so think your.

Banks probably I activated my card using. WhatsApp I get my statement balances on. WhatsApp Farmers you know use HDFC Ergo. to buy insurance in from Villages so. it's almost like movie tickets through. WhatsApp movie tickets and I think. during the time of Co if I'm not you. know when MAV launched the chatbot 80. million Indians which is 8 CR Indians. actually used uh you know the chat to. get information on coid because you.

needed a place to get Reliance reliable. information and where better than the. government right to uh through myav and. people 30 million people downloaded. vaccination certificates so as people. are building more and more Innovative. experiences as businesses are building. more and more Innovative experiences I. think people's trust Factor obviously. keeps going up because where more than. trust do you find Value in the platform. right either in terms of the connections. you're making the discoveries that. you're making like you've discovered a. Creator which which is Raj like talking. to all the cpg distributor Network right.

people took to you because you had. something important and interesting and. useful to share so as long as the. platform can continue to do that and. that's powered by Community that's not. us right we can provide the tools and. the platform I think you know we'll have. a place in people's hearts have two. questions on this how you have been able. specifically in India able to make. people Trust on WhatsApp more than let's. say telegram let's we were talking about. features and stuff like telegram has.

enough. features what do you think what why did. you guys win over Telegram in India look. um I actually it has all the features as. well and in fact few things there are. you can't do on WhatsApp you can do on. telegram but still people don't use it. and they like what like so telegram is. considered more like let's say like you. can get scammed easily you can do. multiple things there it's just so. there's no negative connotation attached. to Whatsapp like why and how was that. possible look I can't speak for telegram.

and I think there's a lot of space for a. lot of messaging apps to exist in our. country and they should and they should. exist and they should Thrive right uh. but I would say I I'll tell you you know. I think at whatsapp user safety and. privacy has been at the core of how they. build features and if you saw even the. recent features that you've used which. is silence unknown callers right or you. know the WhatsApp privacy Center that we. launched where you can go and see all. your settings in one place uh I I think. our learning that has come from.

interacting with users and seeing. behavior on our platforms is learning. continuously from them and building for. them right and I think the reason why. you probably see um India is one of our. largest markets so we learn a lot from. the behavior that we see in India and we. build uh also hopefully to meet the. needs of the Indian users uh so I think. that's what we've done well uh and if. you see some of them have been. innovative and new stuff right like.

geomat is a Commerce experience we've. done nowhere else in the world we first. piloted it in India and uh with a. partner like Gio you know we're EST. they're also established we're. established so it's not so you do see. some of those synergies as well come in. which uh let us innovate in this market. so I would say hearing I've listening to. the users keeping user safety uh user. privacy at the core of what we do and um. specifically thinking about what would.

work in India and building for that has. been has helped and hence you see a lot. of slew of new uh product launches I. think we've um multiple users like now. you can do work calls right uh so I. think that's also come out of behavior. so typically how we've always built. product at meta is we've gone our energy. is gone where the user Behavior has been. uh in terms of what we're organically. seeing on the platform whether you know. it it builds on the features that we.

already have whether it amplifies good. user experience on our platform and. that's how we build that's how we build. for businesses as well so a lot of the. tools that we've built so we've launched. you can launch ads from WhatsApp itself. because what we realized for small. businesses you know very small. businesses won't necessarily you know go. to Facebook set up an account there. start their ad from there to you know uh. go to Whatsapp equally what we've. noticed is lots of businesses as as they. get a little more sophisticated want to.

reach the Facebook Instagram audience. and then get to WhatsApp so juicy. chemistry is a perfect example of a. company that started off actually the uh. you know uh with a presence on Facebook. pages then started using that audience. that they built to also build a business. on WhatsApp so we've seen pretty. interesting examples like that but we. all our energy always goes where we see. uh where the user is headed like what. trends are we seeing and similarly what. do businesses need of us and similarly.

what do creators need of us interesting. okay since you focus a lot on security. there are a lot of things that are. happening in recent times that we got to. know that is you get a video call from. an unknown. caller that the moment you pick up the. call the other person starts getting. naked or starts talking about some. random things or just try to put show. you explicit content and then they. record the whole the whole video call. and then they blackmail you by later.

sending you hey you were on a you were. on a sex chat with me I'm going to put. it out in the world you they try to. extort money or they try to do certain. things when things like these get. reported what do you do in order to make. sure that they don't happen again. because these kind of things are bound. to happen with every platform around the. world and they keep happening and people. will find out a turnaround way but how. do I make my WhatsApp experience safer. and what as you as a platform doing so. that I don't get stuck in these things. so I think for what we've noticed is uh.

uh when we see Behavior like that uh you. know or you know when in respon not just. in response we're continuously making it. safer on our platform so you can silence. unknown callers you have a WhatsApp. privacy Center uh what we've also done. is invested in education so if you saw. some of the Privacy campaigns that we're. running talk about how it's not enough. to have the tools it's also important. that people know that those tools exist. right um and for example on businesses. if there's a business that's harassing.

you on WhatsApp you can block that. business you can report that business uh. so it's important to build the tool but. equally it's important for you to know. that tool exist that I have the agency. to use it uh so I would say we also. publish reports on how many accounts. we've blocked as a result we cooperate. uh you know on uh anything where the law. requires us to we we also cooperate so. there's a bunch of things that we do in. that space But this is a bit of a vacle. right because there's always there like.

you said across platforms there are very. smart actors out there that are always. trying to figure out how to get that. next quick Buck from a user so our job. is never done so we'll have to keep. investing we'll have to keep learning. and we'll have to keep getting better at. what we do okay there so now this get me. to on Instagram because so you said you. can report a business you can report. people anyone who's trying to do it. under there if there are multiple. reports against that one account you get. it there must be some threshold that. then you block the person right and they.

you revoke their access is that what. happens there's a you know there's a a. policy where we do take down uh accounts. yes okay or we block accounts so is. there a number that okay if I'm a. unknown WhatsApp have Community. guidelines and we share that very widely. in terms of what's allowed on our. platform what's not so that's widely. published so I would recommend pretty. much every business or every user to. acquaint themselves with what's allowed. and what's not allowed on the platform.

because we then don't break it down to. you later and say is is say you know. you've been blocked but so prevention is. the uh is the best form of response to. that the other thing that I would say is. that um we've also been using a lot of. AI uh to take down harmful content on. our platforms to take down. misinformation 85% of content that we. classify as harmful or violating we take. down even before a human eye can see. them so so uh that's we've invested like. $16 billion on this since.

2016 so this is an area we take. seriously but we use a mix of Technology. because human content moderators alone. can't do the job just like if there's. someone who's doing this video call with. me and I block them I report them and. reported to meta what do you think how. many reports does it get so we publish. uh numbers uh every month so we actually. took down I think if I'm not. mistaken um. 75 lakh accounts this month 7.5 million.

right I'm talking you took them down but. how many reports or like how many we. break down the numbers that where we do. block so uh you know where we've. investigated and we blocked them so that. number is there and it's published uh we. also reported for Facebook and Instagram. where we share how many pieces of. content were taken down it's all in the. public domain and we publish every month. this just for India okay and let's let's. create a question now there are a lot of. people who are impersonating me on.

Instagram and a lot of other creators. and they try to sell random things on. our name because like hey I'm from Raj. shani's close Community I'll give you. some stock market tip come investment. you know all that is happening it's like. very common okay so how many reports or. blocks do I need to do on this person so. that this person gets like never gets to. make their account again look I I would. say a couple of things right rather than. talk about Shani um and since you're. really successful people will uh.

imitation is the best form of flattery. as they say I'm sure you you see many. people wanting to be you but I would say. it goes back to um users also being. aware of who's real and who's not you're. probably a verifi you're verified you. now verification everybody can get yeah. but to get verified you still have to. submit documents and stuff like that. right so uh I would say that there is a. fair amount of uh checks that come with. you being such a massive content creator.

with the kind of following that you have. um and so I would say some of this also. is um you know users being much more. aware and that's where we've played uh. we're also investing our resources so. some of the things that we're doing is. around Instagram you know with just with. Karishma Kapoor I think last month or. the month before we talked about keeping. uh kids safe on the platform you know. how can parent parents think about. parental consent and controls and things. like that uh but having those broader.

conversations uh because that's how. people learn also so we've been. investing in that we're also investing. in uh with cbsc we just announced this. Partners we announced the partnership. with cbsc we reiterated our commitment. yesterday in addition to teaching new. and emerging Technologies like XR you. know arvr AI we're also spending some. time talking about Internet safety right. uh so I think some of this is uh are. places where we're also trying to invest. our uh time and resources and just on. platform tools that help people you know.

stay safe to spot. misinformation the other bit that we do. is uh you know this is more broadly. misinformation not somebody uh imitating. uh Raj and trying to you know take money. off your relatives uh but we also have. fact Checkers we have I think in India. is the largest set of fact Checkers we. have globally we have 11 uh fact. Checkers who independently fact check. and you know uh fact check information. on our platform so that's how we I think. our efforts span across uh but some of.

it is also I would say my advice would. be users can also play a part and uh. think about what they're consuming. whether it's real or not the last bit I. would say is I think on WhatsApp one. very specific uh um thing that we. introduced was and this was to combat. misinformation was you could forward to. any number of people we put that limit. at five right so if you're heavily. forwarded piece of items you know you. could forward it at five times the sixth. time it would stop at once so that was.

also a way you would combat uh some of. the misinformation we were seeing let's. move to brighter side of it is uh India. your largest user base uh India is our. largest user base it's how many people. use Instagram Facebook and WhatsApp uh. we don't break out the numbers but I'll. give you one startat uh Facebook the. last time uh we shared numbers was. around 440 million uh monthlies that was. only India or worldwide that was India. worldwide we have 3.88 billion monthly. actives that's a number that we just.

published we don't break it down by. platform uh I'll give you another stat. Facebook globally had 2 billion monthly. actives we recently shared that one stat. so you have Facebook stats for India. that's a little bit dated and we've. grown significantly since then but I. would give tell you this and we talked. about you know WhatsApp as well as being. you know uh ubiquitous in the country. we're very pleased with the growth that. we're seeing across our platform forms. um and they continue to um to grow for.

meta interesting you know and I have a. business questions on this two three I'm. very excited to know one is last time I. read a report I think a while ago was. 230 million active users monthly on. Instagram in India I don't know if. that's true or false but that was just. like some independent research put it up. that was a while ago I think it was. 20121 or something like that 2022 this. which is like yeah last year so I read. that and 231 to me that was fascinating.

and because a lot of people so I teach a. course where I help people how they can. become a Creator how they can build. their brands online how they can expand. their businesses by becoming a Creator. on Instagram Facebook WhatsApp how they. can leverage all these Platforms in. social media and one question everybody. ask me is hey do you think that. Instagram growth is stunt now I can't be. a Creator because all the growth is. saturated a b. you know these kind of things and to me.

what I always talk to them about this. that if the last dated number is 230. million okay India has 1.5 billion. people and the way Facebook is growing. I'm sure you'll reach 90% of the country. for sure right because you will make. like almost everybody accessible on. Instagram or maybe Facebook or Whatsapp. one or the other way I think creators B. all the people who are there equally.

double chances that's the scope which is. left in the country do you also believe. in this or I think I'm overestimating or. I'm like super optimistic because I'm in. the your numbers are are boggling even. in terms of scale but I I'll point to a. couple of numbers right we talk about uh. internet consumption in the country. increasing and there being 950 million. people being connected on the internet. that's almost a billion people that have. access to the internet in the not so. distant future you're talking about. people consuming video video right if. you're thinking reals short form long.

form what you know um that's 650 Million. by I think 2026 this is a report that uh. I saw recently um and then you're. thinking about platforms where they go. to consume uh content like that and. they're multiple platforms so I would. say just as you tell the creators right. that there is there's room to grow uh. absolutely because the Indian economy. itself is you know is growing uh going. to be an $8 trillion economy by 2030 1. trillion of that is going to come from.

digital right uh so there is momentum uh. you know in the country there's uh. people we talked about data consumption. being higher than China 3x more than. China right so people are consuming. content finding interesting things. online uh and you know there's a space. for creators to create that engaging. content so you're absolutely right in. that there is the numbers are irrelevant. it's more the direction of growth um and. I would say that there is uh a room for.

people to the other report I read was. there's 100 million creators already in. the country right so uh like you said. our population is 1.5 though people can. there'll be more people that may decide. to do that you gave up you know very. comfortable uh existence to start all. over as a Creator so those are the. stories that really excite us and. they're coming from every part of India. you do you feel that Creator economy. from is going to grow or do you feel. like it's saturated or and the I I'll.

actually make it better by adding a. follow-up people feel it's a trend and. eventually so here's why Creator economy. exists and why people love creators. right one is authenticity and connection. second is access people feel that I can. I'm more relatable and I can these guys. are accessible third is trust that I. trust this person more than an average. celebrity but as more and more creat. come in the picture all three things get.

little flaky and shaky because there are. multiple people to trust multiple. authentic people more Brands getting. involved so now the reviews are biased. and everything is there and then people. feel that the exclusivity of one guy a. celebrity now there are 500 celebrities. the moment there are 500 people and. everybody is just like me it doesn't add. up lot of value that I'm not become I'll. not be a fan of one person so because of. these reasons do you feel that creator. economy or creators in general would. slow down and it just a trend will it.

die out in like couple of years or do. you feel like no not at all no I I. actually think the Creator economy is uh. just about taking off right because um. as uh as just about taking off yeah I. actually think there's there's huge. momentum but there's continued and. sustained momentum and I think not. taking off as in I don't think this is. you know Sunset I actually think this of. it's just going to grow to grow from. here right so um in fact one of the.

things that we did earlier this year was. connect brands with creators right we. call the program made on reals when when. we actually look at uh the space what we. also realized was brands also have this. interesting uh U some Brands many of the. big established brands are probably huge. in metros and are now trying to crack. tier 2 tier 3 you know where there's a. lot of emerging Indian internet users. who are consuming who are trying things. for the first time who have disposable.

uh uh incomes that are growing because. the prosperity in India is not no longer. like just you know uh a small set it's. happening Nationwide with all the. Investments the government's making uh. so I would say that what we noticed was. of course you know they're the large. established uh influencers and creators. but equally the micro creators in cities. in you know in villages that are also so. uh you know very influential and uh. helping move purchase decisions so uh so.

this time around so we launched this. program I think in April if I'm not. mistaken and we were all at a a cxo. summit that we'd organized last last. week and one of the things that came up. was you know businesses were coming to. me and saying connect me with some of. the smaller creators that you've seen. right um so they're also waking up to. the possibilities of not just the 1. million the 2 million the 3 million but. also somebody who's from my hometown of.

vsac uh potentially you know appealing. maybe just to a colony not even a whole. whole city but having that cashier and. having that that poll so I would say. early days right so there's still lots. of exciting work to be done there and. the other bit is that I also think. creators don't always do stuff only to. monetize they do it for self expression. for fun and passion to connect with you. know uh people who relate with what.

you're sharing that's how you started. right uh and I think that's not going to. change and when we think about what we. want to achieve it's really to unleash. expression in the country provide that. platform where people are expressing uh. you know uh their passions their. thoughts like you know give that that. platform for them to show their. creativity so that stays Unchained so. we'll continue to invest uh and we hope. creators continue to create 100%. creators are not going anywhere at least. in terms of creation so tell me where do.

you see more growth let's say a 1. million Creator becoming a 10 million. Creator or somebody starting at like. 5,000 followers and going to the 50,000. like do you see more rise in micro. creators or like large creators becoming. Mega creators I see both actually there. are large creators who are making the. leap into becoming Mega creat you feel. like there scope for people to go from 1. million to 10 million 20 million or only. that is for the early births no I. actually think the platform very much. exists and provides you that audience.

right um and I we just discussed the. stats of more people coming online more. people uh consuming content more people. consuming video uh so it's not just the. it's not a fixed pie the pie itself is. growing right uh so that has. implications not just for established. creators getting bigger but also as you. know smaller creators micro creators. coming on and you know uh using the. platform and to express themselves I see. the same thing actually even for. businesses I actually think this is.

going to be pretty uh revolutionary in. terms of small businesses if you think. about India uh any number from 60 to 70. million msmes in the country I think 40%. of all our GDP growth is going to come. from msmes and uh GDP contribution is. going to come from msmes it's right now. 30 so if you think about the India. growth story also I would uh I would. argue that a lot of it will come from. digital transformation that we can drive. with msmes uh and that's not just.

creators I know I'm pivoting but that. also gets me excited you know the 65 I. was reading another stat recently that. 65% of GDP contribution comes from. consumption and consumption means retail. and production of consumer goods and. that if in today's world like a consumer. brand has to grow they need to leverage. Instagram and Facebook in and WhatsApp. in every way possible so I think that's. also growing so if 65% of GDP is there. people have.

to understand these tools and there are. more and more people just coming and. establishing from the business point of. view because now what is started. happening is even though let's say a. larger purchase is happening offline but. the buying decision is happening. online right A lot of people are. discovering products online influence. online and then they go off and buy. offline and that me gets me to a good. question I don't know about other. countries but India specifically I'll. talk about two two companies okay one is.

Google YouTube other is Facebook. Instagram right so from day one YouTube. was very focused on making creators Mega. Stars so YouTube FanFest and creators. and Creator this and Creator ecosystem. and everything that and other. end Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp. from day one they've been investing a. lot in building businesses in terms of. communication in terms of ini. now obviously both teams have started. doing both the things like Facebook has.

meta has started doing a lot of Creator. Summits and Creator days and Google and. YouTube has started a lot of YouTube for. business and stuff like that but a. larger Focus has always been like a. Creator first and then the business. first do you think that's a strategy or. only that like we just seeing from the. outside and making narratives actually. when I think about uh the country. priorities um and you know we I've. shared this also publicly so I can share. it here I actually think of us having. you know we want to bring value to. businesses of all sizes whether it's. small medium or large uh and that's.

important because it means that in India. we'll continue to invest deeply in in. small businesses as well right so it's. not just building for a super large. company but also thinking about how. small businesses get on our platform how. they can grow because within that. specifically we actually took a goal of. we want to make onboarding for small. businesses easy we want to make it easy. for them to find their audiences we want. it to make it easy for them to.

communicate with their clients like. whether it's the free app whether it's. you know direct messaging on Instagram. we want to like build those tools give. them Insight so they can grow their. business so that's something that like. we're super committed to but equally I. talked about you know uh unleashing. creativity right and this platform of. ours especially reals right if I just. give you one stat and I was one of the. things I've gotten used to in India. scale right just the scale of everything. uh during the IC Women's World Cup we. had a billion real place that were all.

with that hashtag right and that's. billion no no that was India what really. yeah that's really crazy right and it. was around uh uh around women's Cricket. which is awesome and I think uh what. you're seeing is that those stats music. uh I think 15 out of the 20 most played. music clips on Instagram are from India. globally for for for meta so I think. crazy that's crazy right that's a huge. number so I I.

actually I actually think that when we. think about our priorities yes we want. to add value to businesses but equally I. think uh creators are such an integral. part they they make the platforms right. so uh you know continuing to invest in. them as well in terms of how they find. tools how they onboard how they share uh. we've been continually listening uh to. Indian uh creators so that's that. remains very much uh uh an effort and.

not just around reals but around threads. when we did the launch we was really. excited about the number of creators. that came on for the launch of threads. uh threads in the country uh and. similarly when we launched channels so. that's how we think about it WhatsApp. conversions when I talk to d2c companies. and consumer goods companies is. mindboggling like it's crazy so for all. the businesses did not I did not pay him. to say that truly. no I I'll come to the I'll come come to. the bad part as well I thought you said.

this is the bright. side no I'll come I have to play neutral. no everywhere okay so I was telling you. like so WhatsApp this is just for. everyone whoever is listening to this. podcast guys if you run a business and. you're not leveraging WhatsApp chat flow. to convert and engage and build a. community and convert and upsell and. cross sell you're losing our big money. like the ROI on on WhatsApp is insane. like it's crazy I think especially in.

India it's just it's. amazing it's I did not pay you to say. this but thank you you talk about like. small businesses coming online and using. Facebook right earlier everybody knew. that Facebook Instagram ads is under. prise attention like it's like the roas. return on ad Spence were like five six. seven it would go it was amazing for. businesses it was great that they only. get to spend like 15% on advertising and. then they get everything back it was.

amazing AR I return on investment on. every advertis and every campaign on. yearly basis it was. amazing but now more and more people. discovering this it's getting expensive. and it's difficult to stand out as ads. because now your normal ads just like a. static is not going to work earlier. which used to work what do you feel so. there are two things how you one is a. lot of people are saying that now you. know what if you're running ads on. Facebook and Instagram you're just.

making meta Rich you're not actually. making money yourself because you end up. losing a lot it's not possible for a. brand to do Performance Marketing and. win in the market but earlier it was so. a what what do you have to say on that. and second if you believe that okay. brands are thinking wrong and there. still because we still do Performance. Marketing and there are a lot of Brands. we do it how do we win what do you think. what is a winning strategy for Brands so.

that more conversions come in more. people watch your thing what should be. the ideal flow because I'm definitely. sure that what used to work in 2018. doesn't work right now right firstly I. would say um we don't want to rupe from. a business that's not finding value from. us right so um I would want that every. business have a great experience where. you know the money that they're spending. on our platform is money well spent and. like you just talked about so many d2c. Brands not just on WhatsApp but on. Facebook and Instagram have found pretty.

massive audiences uh Tri an idea tested. iterated and grown on our platforms so I. I will give a few uh few things that I. think have worked right for for for. Brands based on you know for businesses. and I've worked with them the ones that. succeed whether you're small or big is. the ones that are constantly iterating. and testing on our platform not to marit. to one idea and you chasing all their. rupees through that one idea that's not. working but because if you think about.

our platform it evolves very quickly. Trends change very quickly there's genz. memes that are doing the rounds right. there's uh so figuring out what's the. pulse of what's Happening across our. platforms and finding a way to connect. the business as well with with the trend. is a great way you know but equally. testing like creatives get tired like. you said right ecstatic may not work you. know if you're only running that static. for 2 years and you're not getting.

returns uh maybe you know it's time for. a different approach so thinking about. your creatives thinking about you know. uh what's the pulse of what's happening. on our platforms thinking about uh using. more than just static videos and not all. of it has to be fully crafted so in fact. when we were you know and you know this. well when Brands come to you and talk to. you they want you to probably do. something that's fully produced right. many of them whereas the whole Joy of a.

Creator is you know that impulse that. you know and the authenticity with which. um the Creator you know connects with. the audience so managing to uh figure. out how you fit in with the medium so. testing and learning uh figuring out you. know the various options our platforms. have so if you're continuously using. only one element of what our platforms. offer but not reals for example and I. see you know businesses doing that as. well because they probably think real. kot I'll have to produce it it has to.

look like Studio level quality not not. not every business has to do that right. um and figuring out how to use those. where the consumption is also happening. right where users are thinking about how. to build for that will help businesses. uh get better returns I think one thing. which a lot of businesses business. should look at when they're running ads. on Facebook or Instagram. that they are not competing against. other brands they're competing against.

every content that is getting produced. so if their content by far is better. automatically they'll get more shares. and more likes and more conversions on. their content this is what I feel. because think about me as a user I'm. watching one person's real then I'm. watching another person's real and then. I see some ad right if that ad doesn't. feel like an ad to me and it feels like. another real where I'm getting to learn. something I'm definitely going to watch. till the end and then I'm going to buy. it yeah and you know when you come to. buying it also think about the.

experience right so now we have click to. WhatsApp so you're discovering something. on Facebook or Instagram but you're then. taking it to a format where people are. comfortable closing off the transaction. because this another survey that we did. with iuce talked about how people no. longer want to get on calls uh or you. know get to a website to buy something. but they want to chat with the business. and buy it and that's certainly Behavior. I am seeing as well I'm one of that 77%. right I like to chat with the business. but that's the other thing like building. for those experiences um and you know.

being able to handle the queries that. you get so if you get a lot of queries. and then you take 20 days to respond. you're going to have a problem so I. think being super agile testing itating. being willing to fail a little bit uh. and using the full functionality of you. know WhatsApp Instagram and Facebook and. not thinking one as an individual thing. but also the interplay between uh uh. them would be helpful can you share one. Insight one cool tip or advice for all. the businesses that are doing something.

that we don't know and then you can help. us understand like here here's if you do. this right probably your business will. grow invest we talked about this and you. I I like I said I definitely didn't pay. you to say that but the ROI on WhatsApp. that we're seeing right so I do think. there's some businesses that natively. start off as WhatsApp first so it's. there storefront it's their website. instead of the old days of building. those pages but I think that's where.

maybe a more medium or a larger business. is losing out so my one tip would be. don't think of it as a discret like. don't think of it as you know rajco will. I have to sell this to Raj or I have to. send a message to Raj on his card. statement think of uh it is a full. interaction with Raj and how would you. build that everything from acquiring Raj. as a customer. uh to helping build experiences for you. as you use the product or the service uh.

to then upselling you with like that's. when I think if you think of it as a a. flywheel versus you know a funnel we. think of it as a funnel and we build for. each of those whereas in WhatsApp I. think thinking of it as a comprehensive. Journey with uh a customer would be a. great way to build what that means is. that you have to think a little. differently because may not be just the. marketing team maybe the customer. service team will also have to get in in. the journey early on right uh maybe. you're measuring things a little bit. differently and across uh you know um.

across both the outcomes that you're. driving on acquisition as well as on the. servicing uh and you should measure. because one of the banks that we worked. with uh actually talked about how 12% of. all their customer service calls had. actually moved to WhatsApp and those are. so it's not just a small business it's. also large business Reinventing and. rethinking their workflows and uh and. their processes it could be you are. reaching out to your distributor but. also servicing your distributor so I.

would say the possibilities are many so. my one tip would be think about how you. can use uh WhatsApp to grow your. business and it's not just small and. medium businesses Bangalore Metro did. you know you can buy tickets on WhatsApp. now yeah it's pretty awesome and you. know more exciting news to share there. across other metros soon but uh think. about it don't stand in line so you know. you just scan the QR code which which. you. I. don't and then you buy uh then you buy.

your tickets and a way you go so I think. as more and more of these things keep. getting added people will naturally. gravitate to what works for them and. what adds value for them you asked me. for one tip I'll give you one more tip. for businesses because it's an easy one. and they should be doing it already if. they're not uh We've invested pretty. heavily in um AI across a product. everything from taking harmful content. down to what you see on your feed to. driving business outcomes right um for. businesses and there's a product Suite.

that we have called Advantage Plus which. works like magic so we use it you use it. and you so I'm sure you have H you know. success stories to share uh but that's. something that I've seen also work very. well in the Indian context and it takes. away from you know putting a lot of uh. thinking around especially if you're not. a native expert and you're not spending. all your time running campaigns let the. platform you know decide for you. Advantage Advantage Plus is pretty cool.

it so Advantage Plus is if I may explain. in the right way you can correct me. you're doing a better job than. me it's like so let's say I run an ad. and show it to few people and then they. I get conversions so which kind of. people are clicking on it watching. buying converting Facebook or Instagram. Auto automatically builds them into one. cohort and shows it shows it to more. people which are similar and identical.

to that audience so that you don't have. to do the job by choosing people that. the platform the AI automatically and. machine learning automatically decides. who to show for better conversions is. that what so basically Raj chooses a set. of outcomes he wants and then the. platform delivers those um outcomes for. you and it's enabled through Ai and it's. uh yeah and in most in almost every case. we've seen uh pretty significant returns. for advertisers that have used it thank.

you so much it was pleasure chatting. with you I hope you enjoyed as much as I. did thank you thank you for having me. thank you so much for watching this. episode till the end please let us know. do you like our conversations with the. top leaders of top mnc's in the country. do you want us to get people from Amazon. Microsoft Apple and all the other big. companies if yes let us know which are. the companies and the top leadership you. are interested in we'll get them here.

and try to ask all the questions that. you have before you leave the show you. know that you have to share this. conversation with at least one person to. help them because if you help one person. and they start implementing on the idea. which they get from this conversation. their Indian dream will be possible much. faster and overall as a nation we'll. grow much faster until the next episode. keep figuring out. [Music].