Today, WhatsApp is opening this up for India's small businesses to register for a Meta Verified badge and to send customer-approved messages to customers.

More than 65 million small and medium-sized businesses exist in India, but only about 5 million sell online, based on a joint report that Meta and Bain & Company published last May. The company is trying to make the most of this market opportunity through promotion of WhatsApp Business as the app is used by the vast majority of Indians for messaging and has emerged as a favored avenue for small businesses to connect with customers.

Available for users of WhatsApp Business, the Meta Verified subscription, the company said, would provide features, including the feature to allow one to create custom WhatsApp pages which will be discoverable on the web, support for multi-devices, and multiple employee accounts.
Meta Verified for WhatsApp Business will begin at about $8 (around ₹639) a month for Indian users.

Besides Meta Verified, small businesses that use WhatsApp Business can now schedule and send customized messages-think appointment reminders, birthday greetings, or sales updates-to customers for less than a rupee per message. Businesses can also include customers' names and add customizable call-to-action buttons.

In September last year, Meta launched its verification program for business accounts on Instagram and Facebook.

It is also undertaking an initiative called "WhatsApp Business Yatra" or so, this is what the company is going to use in visiting and promote the service to tier-2 and tier-3 cities in the country and aims to provide in-person training to small businesses.

We will train small businesses on how to set up their WhatsApp Business account, how to create a catalog, how to set up ads that click to WhatsApp, and much more. We are also building a resource center on our website, which will become one-stop tutorial center for these businesses," the company added.