WhatsApp’s new pricing policy hurting SMBs' budgets and other top stories of the week

WhatsApp, owned by Meta, recently revised its pricing policy for business messaging, raising concerns among small to medium-sized business (SMB) owners. With over 2 billion monthly active users globally and 500 million in India alone, WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Business API have established a strong network effect in the country.

The revised pricing for Business API, which caters to larger companies with high messaging volumes, has raised worries about eroding marketing budgets and the potential for WhatsApp to gain a monopolistic hold on communication.

SMB owners express their concerns about the lack of viable alternatives to WhatsApp due to its wide usage and deep market penetration. They believe that shifting to other platforms would be time-consuming and costly, as no other platform offers the same level of accessibility and user base. Many businesses have found WhatsApp to be a revolutionary marketing tool, with high conversion rates.

“As of now, I do not see any other platform as an alternative to WhatsApp. It is so widely used by people in our country that I do not see shifting to any other channel for communication,” says Meghana Manay, COO, SR Gopal Rao, a Bengaluru-based optical company. 

Naman Dhamija, the Founder and Marketing Director of Dharishah Ayurveda, believes WhatsApp is a revolutionary tool for marketing, with conversion rates for them being 30-40% for leads. “Using this platform, the company successfully acquires thousands of customers on a monthly basis,” he says.

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Other top picks of the week

Bizongo

Bizongo, founded in 2015 by Sachin, Aniket Deb, and Ankit Tomar, began its journey by connecting buyers and sellers in the packaging industry to make the system more efficient. The team soon realised that several industries worked with outdated supply chain models. It then shifted its focus to modernising these workflows.

“If Indian businesses are enabled with tech, it will lead to their socio-economic transformation, and that I had observed with my family’s business into textile industry,” says Sachin.

If you were to visit Ananda Dairy, one of India’s leading dairy and food manufacturing companies, you would notice a wide range of products sourced from various micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). 

From primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging (flexi pouches, boxes, and cartons) to agri-input products like sugar and wheat, the company procures products via a vast supply chain system. 

For years, enterprises like Ananda Dairy relied on offline traders. Today, Ananda Dairy uses solutions built by Bizongo to streamline its work. The Mumbai-based startup says it harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to help enterprises establish seamless communication channels with MSME partners.

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Crossbeats

In the year 2016, the concept of true wireless headphones was non-existent. Only a handful of brands took to this technology, bringing out products in the category. 

While brands like boAt now synonymous with it, Crossbeats is not far behind. And it all started with a drive to make better tech in India from its founders Archit Agrawal and Abhinav Agrawal. 

Starting off with the aim to bring wireless technology to the Indian market, Crossbeats has expanded to other products such as smartwatches, soundbars, smartwatch straps, screen protectors, and Bluetooth receivers; smartwatches are the most popular.

The Agrawal brothers now want to tackle a new niche—tech focused on women’s issues.

"It is an area which is largely male-centric and almost 80-90% of the products are black which can be attributed to the fact that women often discussed with men before buying technology-related products,” Archit Agrawal, Co-founder, Crossbeats, tells SMBStory.

Crossbeats also has doubled down on its wearables offerings. Besides the tech focused on women, it also has wearable watches on offer, including Ignite LYT a smartwatch priced at Rs 1599 to Orbit Infiniti 2.0 priced at Rs 5999 with 4GB music storage.

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