India Emerges as Meta’s Largest Market for AI Usage on WhatsApp
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has experienced a significant boost in its artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions, thanks to its massive user base of 500 million in India. The company’s CFO, Susan Li, revealed during Meta’s second-quarter earnings call that India has become the largest market for Meta AI usage. This is a noteworthy milestone considering that Meta AI was only launched in India a few months ago.
Since its launch, Meta AI has been used for billions of queries, with particularly promising signs of retention and engagement on WhatsApp. The availability of Meta AI in India coincided with the completion of India’s general elections in June, making it accessible to all users. However, Meta encountered cultural challenges in adapting AI to the Indian market. In May, there were reports that Meta AI-generated images predominantly depicted Indian men wearing turbans. In July, users complained that Meta AI generated jokes about one religion but not others. Meta addressed these issues by tweaking its algorithm to ensure fairness in generating content related to religious jokes.
To further expand its reach, Meta introduced support for multiple languages, including French, German, Hindi, Hindi-Romanized Script, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Meta AI is now available in 22 countries, with recent additions including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico.
During the earnings call, Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, highlighted the need for significantly more computing power to train the next version of their AI model, Llama 4. He estimated that the computing power required for Llama 4 would be nearly ten times greater than that used for Llama 3. This indicates Meta’s commitment to advancing AI technology and its dedication to improving the capabilities of their chatbot.
In addition to the success of Meta AI, Meta has seen promising growth in its social networks. Threads, Meta’s rival to Twitter and other social media platforms, now boasts “almost” 200 million users, surpassing 175 million active users last month. Zuckerberg also mentioned the positive results of Facebook usage among young adults in the United States.
The emergence of India as Meta’s largest market for AI usage on WhatsApp showcases the country’s growing influence and importance in the global technology landscape. India’s immense user base and increasing digital adoption make it a prime market for Meta’s AI-driven products. With Meta’s continued focus on improving AI capabilities and expanding language support, the company is well-positioned to further capitalize on India’s potential and drive innovation in the AI space.