Exactly 8 years after WhatsApp launched its services on February 24, 2009, it now has 200 million active users in India, making it the largest market for the Silicon Valley-based firm. The company, which is now a Facebook subsidiary, has done several things, including making its platform suitable for low speed Internet and enabling regional languages in a bid to make it relevant to users even in non-metro regions. Going forward, WhatsApp wants to be more than a communications platform and is looking at how it can play in the digital payments as well as the e-commerce segments. BusinessLine met Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, to know his views on the future roadmap, India’s start-up ecosystem, and concerns around H1B visa programme. Excerpts:

When you started out in 2009, did you imagine that India could be your largest market one day?

We saw the potential. What we didn’t foresee was the enthusiasm. We realised that we could build a product that has global potential. But it’s a surprise that it has become such an integral part of people’s daily life.

What’s driving the usage here?

When we first started WhatsApp, we were very clear that the product has to be globally accessible. For example, we knew we had to support languages. In India, we now support 10 regional languages. The second thing we did is to very deliberately support brands like Nokia and Blackberry, which were popular in India.

So, in those early days, you had people in India using Nokia phones and then as more people came online these Nokia users helped champion WhatsApp on Android phones. It thus had a snowballing effect.

Then came along companies like RJio with 4G and it helped further in the snowball effect. It’s a sort of culmination of factors like improved mobile service and more modern smartphones that are affordable.

How do you use this user base to monetise WhatsApp?

The leverage point is truly the population that has almost universally adopted the product.

When you look at it from a commercial point of view, you see tremendous opportunity to have a conversation with consumers. That’s where we see an opportunity.

We are going to provide commercial services so that businesses can talk to consumers. We are having two different thought lines. First, what do large companies need when they talk to consumers? Typically, that means that they need some sort of API to have the conversation.

On the other side are small businesses that need pre-built solutions, probably something in the mobile space that they could use for things like customer support.

We are in preliminary stages. We have started staffing and building. But we still don’t know the business model. That’s where we are going to experiment and try different charging models.

What we don’t want to build is an advertisment-supported product where businesses are sending offers or unsolicited messages and creating a really negative experience for users.

So do we see dollars coming in soon?

It’s still some distance away. You will see the products first before the dollars.

This is one of great advantage of being bought by Facebook. They have not put in place any guidance for us in terms of when the revenue generation should happen. We will continue to use this year to build out the product and finding that right model.

Founders usually move out and do something else once they sell. You have continued to stay on at WhatsApp even after Facebook acquired it. Why?

I truly believe in the mission – we want to connect the world. We have made tremendous progress but there is still work to do. It’s one thing to build a product and another to create a business. I want to see this through till it becomes a strong sustainable business.

Do you see WhatsApp go beyond messaging to things like digital payments in India?

I had a meeting with Indian IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad where we discussed a number of things including how WhatsApp could be used for civic engagements, for e-commerce and digital transactions and payments.

All these are in the space of opportunity for WhatsApp. We want to blend that into our core mission of connecting users and creating great communication experience that’s simple, reliable, trusted and safe. We would continue to research, evaluate and figure out what we can build that best serves the people of India.

You have grown five-fold, from 40 million in 2014 to 200 million now. Will you reach a billion users in India in 2 years?

It is definitely achievable. But the limiting factors are smartphone adoption and low-cost affordable data plans. Without these, I don’t think we will hit a billion in India in 2 years. Also, whenever you look at growth you look at the economic ‘S’ curve where at a certain point you hit a saturation point. We have not hit that point; we are still at the sweet spot.

There’s a lot of buzz around Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality. Are you using these technologies on WhatsApp?

We think ourselves as a conduit. Over time you can expect that an enterprise might want to build some sort of customer service using Artificial Intelligence (AI). So if you want to talk to that AI service, WhatsApp could be the conduit.

So you wouldn’t do what Google is doing with Allo in which it offers assistance and information to users?

We wouldn't be in a hurry to jump into a conversation between you and someone important to you. We don’t want to examine your conversation and ‘oh you are talking about a restaurant so let me recommend one’.

There is a debate going on about fake news. One sees a lot of fake stuff being circulated. How are you dealing with this?

That’s a tough question. We are trying to understand it and the right tools to tackle it. We are an encrypted platform and we don’t have any means of examining content. We have to rely on teaching users to have good judgement, so that we can provide them with tools with which they can report things. Some of these tools are already built in and as we get more mature in our understanding, we may add more capabilities.

How do you see the concern around H1B visas under the new US administration?

We are in the position of caution. We are observing the actions the President is taking and reconciling that with our goals. Our goal is to hire the best and brightest and for us, the H1B programme is important. Lot of tech interest revolves around more H1B visas because that’s really important to build the best products with the best talent.

You have personally invested in Indian Start-ups. Do you see the next Google or Facebook coming from here? Are you worried about the ‘bubble bust’?

I am terribly excited about what’s happening in India. Booms and busts are part of cycles. Some of the best start-ups are formed during a bust. I absolutely believe that the next Facebook or Google could come from somewhere in India. .

I am predominantly limited in my ability to do due diligence from the US. I don’t have the luxury of flying to India and vetting companies. So I do it on personal network basis.

But larger firms and individuals are investing in India and they should. There are some great business being built out of India.

If you had to build something now what would that be?

I am still in the mode of building WhatsApp. Its too hard to think about what’s next when you already have something big in your hand.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW