Sustainability is a hot topic, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, most ecommerce buyers, sellers, and logistics firms are taking steps to be more eco-friendly. But commitment and progress are patchy.

But it’s also because of WhatsApp’s investments into the country, including payments and ecommerce through its partnership with JioMart, as well as India’s fast-growing smartphone user base. Aside from Indonesia, the rest of the countries we track in Asia-Pacific will see minimal monthly user growth this year.

There is no global triopoly, but ecommerce is collectively challenging Google and Facebook. Google will claim 28.6% of the worldwide digital ad market this year, and Facebook will take 23.7%. The ecommerce heavyweights combined (Alibaba, Amazon, and JD.com) will take 15.9%. Read Next.

Spotlight doesn’t currently offer any embedded shopping features. Brands that are part of Snapchat’s Brand Profile beta program can build a store that lives in the profile, Snap said. Creators can also connect their own stores natively to their public profile page. YouTube Shorts. Our Take: After launching in beta in India last year, YouTube began testing its short-video format in the US in March.

For example, Future Generali India Life Insurance saw a 30% reduction in man-hours saved thanks to its chatbot application to its front office. Chatbots can also help insurers better retain customers by providing a more seamless digital experience: 67% of US homeowners insurance customers outlined customer service as the principal driver of policyholder loyalty, per a recent J.D. Power survey.

India, in particular, will likely continue to be a key growth priority for Instagram this year as TikTok remains banned in the country. TikTok is still banned by the government of India, creating a sizable opportunity for Instagram and its new Reels format to fill the gap.

Snapchat cements its AR ecommerce ambitions: Snap is already a popular platform for beauty and fashion brands using AR, but recent moves suggest Snap is getting serious about expanding its AR ecommerce capabilities.

Data from Rakuten Intelligence indicates that Amazon’s US ecommerce market share climbed to 40.4% in June, up from 35.7% in April and 37.0% in May, suggesting that perhaps the bump in apparel sales played a role.

Even India will experience a decline in 2021, after posting the strongest growth worldwide last year.

Xiaomi, now the second-largest global smartphone vendor by shipments, last month unveiled its flagship Redmi Note 10 in India starting around $161, but quickly hiked the price to $174. Chip supply constraints aren’t affecting all the smartphone makers, however.

Instagram led the way with several new shopping features, including Checkout, that make it easier for consumers to go from inspiration to purchase. There’s evidence to suggest a real uptick in adoption.

There’s No Stopping Instagram in India. With 91.9 million monthly Instagram users in 2020, India will be the platform’s second-largest market, behind the US (with 114.3 million). And it’s also the fastest-growing country—we expect Instagram’s user base in India will grow by 47.9% over 2019. That equates to 29.8 million new users YoY.

Shop Pay adds to Facebook’s standing payment offerings, including standard credit and debit card checkout as well as PayPal checkout. Marketer Takeaway: One of the biggest roadblocks to Facebook’s and Instagram’s ecommerce ambitions is a lack of trust.

India Has the Most Users but Will Lose the Growth Crown. India has the most Facebook users in the world—272.2 million in 2020, up from 242.6 million in 2019. The US comes in second with 177.1 million, up just 4.9 million from 172.2 million in 2019. The remainder of the top 10 is in the same order as in 2019, except for Thailand and Egypt, which switched places in 2020.

Major ecommerce companies, with support from policymakers, ramped up new functionalities and incentives for rural buyers and sellers. Platforms like Pinduoduo revolutionized ecommerce connectivity between rural farmers and urban consumers, generating new financial motivation for rural people to get online.

The launch of Live Shopping was a natural next step, as it combines several aspects of digital media that have seen growth during the pandemic: ecommerce, livestreaming, and influencers. And since sellers that want to host live shopping streams must enroll in Instagram Checkout, it automatically places them within Instagram’s (and thus larger Facebook’s) ecommerce ecosystem. Snapchat.

In recent years, Alibaba has successfully leveraged its ecommerce platforms to generate a new line of search ad revenues, akin to the Amazon model in the US. In 2016 and 2017, Alibaba saw at least 40% growth rates in digital ad revenues across its various properties, and last year that rate was a still sizable 24.3%.