WhatsApp has failed to generate cash for Facebook. The deal with Jio can be a turning point.

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Mukesh Ambani, chairman, Reliance Industries; and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook

Synopsis
Some experts call WhatsApp a liability for parent Facebook. While big, flourishing brands are often money-spinners for companies, Facebook has been unable to monetise the instant-messaging platform significantly despite its 2 billion users globally. Facebook’s deal with Jio is intended to set things right by transforming WhatsApp into a marketplace-type platform. It may just work.

It has a mammoth 2 billion users globally, and 450 million in India alone. Only a couple of months ago, WhatsApp was perched at the second spot on The Economic Times Brand Equity’s Most Trusted Brands roster. And last year London-based market-research and data-analytics firm YouGov had also placed it at the second spot in its ranking of the most trusted brands in India. Make no mistake, instant-messaging platform WhatsApp is a monster brand in