Facebook and PayPal invested in Indonesian unicorn Gojek, the companies announced on June 2. Gojek allows users to order food, shop, hail rides and make digital payments in Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, and Philippines. The investment will focus on "supporting payments and financial services in the region". Through this investment, Facebook owns 2.4% stake in Gojek's digital payments business, GoPay, while PayPal owns 0.6%, Reuters reported. Gojek's other investors include Google and Chinese conglomerate Tencent. Through this investment, PayPal's payment capabilities will be integrated into Gojek's services, and GoPay customers will also get access to PayPal's global network of 25 million merchants. Facebook — for whom this is the first investment in Indonesia — will have access to another 170 million customers, especially if the company has plans to roll out WhatsApp Pay in South East Asia. WhatsApp COO Matt Idema wrote in Facebook's blog post that his company would work with Gojek "to support the growth of millions of small businesses". It is significant that the WhatsApp COO announced this as the messaging app will play an integral part in Facebook's expansion plans in the region. In India too, Facebook's plan is to use its $5.7 billion investment in Jio Platforms to leverage WhatsApp Pay through JioMart.
