On Tuesday, Meta and the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) launched a collaboration to assist small companies in harnessing the potential of digital commerce.
Through an ecosystem of Meta’s business and technical solution providers, the alliance aims to enable and educate small company operators to develop conversational buyer and seller experiences on WhatsApp.
ONDC will assist these business solution providers in becoming seller apps, allowing them to put the companies they serve into the ONDC network and generate commerce.
The Meta Small Business Academy will also train five lakh MSMEs in digital skills over the next two years.
Meta Small Business Academy provides a certification to enable entrepreneurs and marketers to obtain digital marketing abilities to expand on the Meta applications, following Meta’s ambitions to upskill 10 million small companies throughout the nation.
Sandhya Devanathan, Vice President of Meta India, said that the country’s digital narrative is at a crossroads.
“Our partnership with ONDC builds on supporting the government’s vision for Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and furthering our ongoing commitment to skilling small businesses and aiding this rapid digital transformation and growth story in the country,” she said in a statement.
Under the terms of the agreement, Meta will also assist Sahayak, ONDC’s WhatsApp chatbot, in improving the services provided by the bot as ONDC’s single point of seller and customer contact.
T Koshy, CEO of ONDC, remarked that marketing oneself and reaching a larger audience is crucial for any firm to succeed.
“Our partnership with Meta will not only digitally upskill these businesses, but will also enable them to connect with a customer base far and wide,” Koshy said, confident that the collaborative efforts will enable millions of small businesses by providing the right impetus for growth.
The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is a government-backed project. It is a trailblazing network that aims to alter the world of digital commerce by seamlessly connecting vendors and buyers, fostering collaborative and safe transactions.
At its foundation, ONDC seeks to solve the disadvantages that conventional online markets suffer, such as lack of trust, excessive transaction costs, and restricted interoperability. ONDC creates an environment where transactions are securely recorded, providing transparency and smooth verifiability by using the possibilities of blockchain technology and the beak protocol.
