Meta Lets Indian Advertisers Pay in Interest-Free Installments

Saying it wants to strengthen working capital support for small businesses in India, Meta has announced it will allow them to pay for advertising campaigns in three monthly installments without having to pay interest.

This new financial support feature called No Cost Equated Monthly Installments (EMI) lets businesses choose an amount between INR 3,200 ($40) and INR 500,000 ($6,250) to convert to EMIs, according to a Tuesday (Aug. 30) press release.

While banks will charge interest, Meta will cover that cost by giving the businesses an upfront discount when they pay for advertising, per the release.

“With these announcements, every advertiser on Meta in India, irrespective of their ad spends, has access to service and financial support, at the click of a button to unlock new growth opportunities,” Ajit Mohan, vice president and managing director (Facebook India) at Meta, said in the release.

This feature was announced during Meta’s second Grow Your Business Summit in India, where the company also highlighted its 24/7 chat support for advertisers, its grants for small businesses across the country and its launch of a small business loans initiative that enables collateral-free business loans for its small business advertisers through third-party lending platforms, per the press release.

“We know that each business is on a distinct journey and we are committed to building India-focused solutions keeping in mind their unique needs,” Mohan said in the release.

The announcement comes one day after Meta announced that it had joined forces with Indian eCommerce company JioMart to enable customers to buy groceries within Meta’s WhatsApp chat.

Read more: Meta Challenges Amazon, Walmart for Share of Indian eCommerce Market

India has also been an important front in the eCommerce war between Amazon and Walmart as the country has 1.4 billion people and internet penetration is steadily growing at 47%.