How Google may assist in resolving India’s “WhatsApp problem” with Airtel, Vodafone, and Reliance Jio

According to reports, Google and WhatsApp are engaged in a heated competition for supremacy in India’s Rs 2,500 billion business messaging sector. A report in Economic Times claims that the US tech giant is launching a substitute mobile messaging app in the nation, which might upset WhatsApp’s monopoly on business-to-business client communication.
According to experts, this action may have a substantial effect on India’s overall messaging-based communication environment.

By collaborating with Google to provide Rich Communication Service (RCS) messaging to Indian corporate clients, Vodafone Idea (Vi) has grabbed the lead. Industry sources predict Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio will shortly follow suit.

Google RCS is less expensive than WhatsApp.
With prices that are almost twice as high as regular business SMS but far cheaper than WhatsApp’s, Google’s RCS is expected to bring in a sizable sum of money for telecom providers. Experts and business leaders have pointed out that carriers may buck the trend of businesses moving away from conventional SMS and toward over-the-top (OTT) services like WhatsApp by using RCS.
Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone-Idea have all voiced complaints over WhatsApp.

To stop business communications from switching completely to platforms like WhatsApp, telecom operators Airtel, Vodafone-Idea, and Reliance Jio have already asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to intervene. Risks related to cybersecurity and possible revenue losses for carriers and the national exchequer (estimated at Rs 3,000 crore) are among the concerns.
But there are still difficulties. There are still about 300 million feature phone users in India, and a significant portion of iPhone users do not have RCS functionality.

With a market valuation of little less than Rs 2,500 crore as of March 31, 2023, the business messaging sector is expected to expand. The market is growing as more and more companies depend on electronic payments and online shopping.

According to a prominent telecom executive, Vodafone Idea (Vi) has already started onboarding businesses for RCS texting. Vi and Google operate on a 70:30 revenue-sharing basis.
RCS operates in more than 95 countries. After sending one billion messages worldwide, it launched additional capabilities in December 2023, as Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a post on X.