Facebook has just invested a secret amount in Gojek ‘unicorn’, what is Mark Zuckerberg planning?

According to the announcement, Facebook has just invested in Gojek, Indonesia’s food and ride-hailing app, as part of its efforts to expand into emerging markets and find partners for WhatsApp’s messaging service.

This is the second largest international investment of Facebook made in the past 6 weeks with the aim of engaging more deeply in online businesses in localities. The company traded a 10% stake in India’s Reliance Jio for $ 5.7 billion in April.

Facebook is planning to build an e-commerce business around the WhatsApp messaging app and create a payment feature for this application. They have now allowed businesses to use WhatsApp as a mobile website to interact with customers.

“We believe that WhatsApp can create a more digital Indonesia by allowing more people to participate in the rapidly growing digital economy in the world.” The company did not disclose how much money it invested in Gojek.

Facebook’s investment in Gojek can be considered a huge advantage for Indonesian startups. For years, this app has become a provider of internet services ranging from payment to food ordering. Gojek is facing huge competition from Grab in the region.

Gojek and Grab are now aimed at becoming the default application, used for many purposes of consumers throughout Southeast Asia like WeChat of Tencent. This startup is currently known by many “backs” including Google, Tencent and Temasek Fund of Singapore.

The company launched a taxi-hailing app in Jakarta in 2015 and now offers many other on-demand services such as moving house, food delivery, medicine delivery. In the latest round of funding, Gojek is valued at $ 10 billion, which is Indonesia’s largest unicorn.