Biz messaging going to be our next growth engine: Meta India's Devanathan

In a video interview with Shivani Shinde, Devanathan talks about the next big bets for Meta in India and her priorities

It has been almost nine months since Sandhya Devanathan took over as the head and vice-president of Meta India, returning to her home country after 17 years. While the past few months have been hectic for her in trying to know the businesses Meta supports, she has been intrigued by the digital transformation of the banking system, since her first job was with Citi in India. In a video interview, Devanathan tells Shivani Shinde about the next big bets of Meta India and her priorities. Edited excerpts:

How have the past few months been in India for you? You took up the role at a difficult time.

I spent the first eight months in on-boarding and getting to know the team and all the businesses that we support. Even as I am settling into the current role, I am also seeing the other side of the country -- digital transformation, which we cannot see from outside. We did go through a tough phase as we parted with very talented colleagues. But being in India is exciting.

What will be your priorities?

Business messaging is going to be the next engine of growth for Meta in India. I see this as the next leap of growth, and I also see this transforming businesses, especially those that are setting up their first ‘storefront’ on WhatsApp…I am focussed on that. Two, I think we are placed nicely among the big and small brands and how we serve them not just on WhatsApp but also on Facebook (FB) and Instagram. We think as India aims to be an $8 trillion economy, small businesses will play a strong role and Meta can be part of that.

Third, creators and their ability to find expression on our platforms. We just did our all-hands meeting, and one of the things we discussed was how we can be part of the innovation that is happening from here.

India just created its digital personal data protection law. What do you have to say?

We welcome regulations that balance user safety and security and innovations. It provided us with clarity, but the rule book is still being written by the ministry. We are awaiting the rules before we can comment more on that. But as a first step, it’s definitely provided clarity to the industry.

One of the concerns among big tech firms has been that India has a huge user base but is not big in terms of revenue. How has it played out for Meta?

We have a laser-sharp focus on doing two things: Transforming businesses of all sizes and also making it a growth engine for us. Interestingly, in a survey we did, 90 per cent of the people on our platform have spoken to a business and 70 per cent prefer to message a business rather than talk to them on a phone. So there is a big shift happening in consumer behaviour. As a platform we are super well poised to capitalise on that shift.

Second, the advertising market in the country as a percentage of GDP (gross domestic product) is still low. The contribution of advertisement to GDP in India is still at a lower end, somewhere at 0.5 per cent; it’s 1.9 per cent in the US. But the shift to digital is happening rapidly in the country, giving us a huge opportunity. On revenue from India, we are actually pleased with what we are doing here now.

Has the move to short-video format platforms like Reels meant that FB is losing its relevance?

We recently said our active FB user base globally is 2.2 billion. Contrary to public opinion, FB is very much a thriving community. This has been powered by a lot of work that is being done by AI. Now, 25 per cent of all the recommendations that you see on FB are recommended by AI engines. The other thing is the availability of Reels on FB. When you talk of monetisation engines, while business messaging is a big focus, video consumption on our platforms is also big. Our MAU (monthly active users) numbers in FB in India have also grown very well. Businesses are finding value and getting better returns.

You remarked that Meta is using India as an innovation hub. Can you elaborate this since Meta does not have an R&D hub here?

India has a huge number of users, and the behaviour we see here is important. For instance, the WhatsApp-Jio Mart app ecosystem we built here. It’s an experience built in India first. MyGov app is another example. Similarly, Bengaluru Metro. We are taking these examples to other geographies. The only other market where we have seen business messaging on WhatsApp business is Brazil. We have had many product teams come and immerse themselves in India and build products. We will have a few products which will have an India lens first kind of approach.

What about WhatsApp Pay? You have been slow and we do not see any major push to grow it either?

WhatsApp Pay is part of building the end-to-end experience. We see WhatsApp Pay as complementary to the experiences that we are building within WhatsApp, which is enabling a super convenient easy way for people to fulfil those experiences.

Meta has come under fire for failing to curb the misuse of its platform by political parties to spread misinformation. India will soon have key elections. What is it that Meta is doing to avoid this?

We have seen around 200 elections over the years and learnt from that. We have used AI very effectively. We have spent $16 billion on keeping people safe on our platforms. Plus, AI is taking down almost 85 per cent of harmful content. We have people who moderate content across 20 Indian languages. We have the largest set of fact checkers in India. We have 11 fact checkers in India. We are also educating people to spot misinformation.

In 2020 Meta invested $5.5 billion in Jio? How has the investment panned out for Meta?

We are very pleased with our partnership with Jio. Isha Ambani did share some of the numbers at the company’s annual general meeting. She said that the launch of JioMart on WhatsApp has been a phenomenal success with 9X growth of JioMart customers on WhatsApp since launch in 2022. It’s a partnership that we greatly value.

Does Meta still believe there is a Metaverse opportunity?

Metaverse continues to be our focus. AI is not new for us. We have released 1,000 models in the AI space since 2014. We have been supporting the open source model. We also use AI to keep users safe on our platform. AI also helps with better targeting. We have also built tools for advertisers. Our Advantage suit of products have led to a 25 per cent increase in returns for advertisers. In India too, we have seen these products being used. All of this powers our Metaverse play even more.