Flipkart blends social with shopping, launches Ping for messaging

Flipkart’s Ping team

Indian ecommerce giant Flipkart today announced that it launched Ping, which is designed as a fun new way to shop with friends. With this move, the seven-year-old startup is attempting to make online shopping a more social affair.

“Shopping is primarily a social activity and going for it with friends and family has been the norm since time immemorial. Online shopping, on the other hand, has largely remained a solo experience. Ping aims to transform online shopping by allowing users to talk to each other [in] real-time in order to make decisions and decide on what to buy,” said Flipkart’s chief product officer, Punit Soni.

Ping is now available in Flipkart’s Android app, where it requires an invite.

Messaging apps are growing fast across India as smartphone usage booms. WhatsApp appears to lead the way with at least 70 million active users in India, chased hard by Facebook Messenger, Line, WeChat, Viber, Nimbuzz, and Hike.

Mobile-first

Within Ping, people can message friends using text, photos, and emoticons. Users can drag and drop products from Flipkart directly into a conversation in the social network. Shoppers can then share the screen with friends to browse together and make a purchase decision.

Flipkart CTO Peeyush Ranjan said that Ping “has been optimized for efficient results even on slow 2G networks,” making it accessible in parts of India where people don’t have 3G or 4G, or where people predominantly use cheaper smartphones. Ping will also support Android smartwatches for viewing messages and doing quick replies.

The messaging feature is the latest in a string of new things that Flipkart has injected into its mobile apps. Flipkart has added an image search feature that allows users to upload an image of a product they are looking for and receive what the algorithm believes are relevant findings.