With more than 3 billion monthly active users globally, WhatsApp functions as the de facto messaging platform across many low- and middle-income countries.
Caribou conducted an extensive study of women’s use of WhatsApp for livelihoods across India, Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan. The data for this study was gathered with the support of the Gates Foundation. All analysis and conclusions are the responsibility of Caribou.
WhatsApp and Women’s Livelihoods
How Everyday Digital Practices Shape Pathways to Economic Participation
Authors Caribou, Turn.io
Micro- and small enterprises make up more than 90% of all enterprises across India, Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan, and WhatsApp has become a primary communication layer for many of them. Yet there is little available evidence about how many women rely on it for their livelihoods, or how deeply.
This research addresses that gap, combining nationally representative surveys of 7,000 adults. It examines how many women use WhatsApp for livelihood activities, how deeply these practices extend, and what factors shape the gap between casual use and effective use across income segments.
I think I’ve really grown in terms of productivity on WhatsApp because it is my main business tool and source of marketing. I get new clients when I post my videos as I ride my motorbike on my WhatsApp status. Someone might tell you they have provided their location but the location is incorrect. So, they will share their location again, via WhatsApp, which is accurate. When clients need something from the supermarket, they send me their list via WhatsApp, including their images.
Beatrice – Motorbike Driver
Nairobi, KenyaBeatrice is featured in this image
I use WhatsApp very fundamentally in my business. I post photos. I take images of my crops, and post them in the farmer groups as well as my status and channels. That way I am able to broadcast messages as well, saying what I have, the price that I am selling at and the quantity that is available. WhatsApp is so integral to how I communicate with my team members as well as other farmers and buyers. And also it is a very cost-effective way for me to communicate with farmers who are not in the country.
Lucy – Onion Farmer
Kajiado, KenyaLucy is featured in this image
1) Scale
In nationally representative surveys, approximately 1 in 6 working-age women reported using WhatsApp to support their livelihoods. Extrapolated to the populations as a whole, this suggests 80–98 million women across these four countries alone. This is the first large-scale estimate of this phenomenon.
2) Effective use
Caribou estimates that 27–39 million of those women are “effective users,” which we define as women who engage more frequently, use more WhatsApp features, and report relying more on WhatsApp for core business functions. Effective users are more likely to report business growth in the past year and confidence in future growth.
3) Income gradient
Both adoption and effective use correlate strongly with income. We group respondents into four segments from Base to Top, defined by international poverty lines. Among women in the Top segment, 16% qualify as effective users. In the Base segment, just 3% do.
4. Gender gap
Women are less likely than men to own a business or a smartphone. Among women who have both, adoption rates are comparable to men’s. The gender gap is in access and opportunity, not in the propensity to use available tools.
Even among women with device access and income-generating activities, roughly 30% choose not to use WhatsApp for their livelihoods. This reflects perceived utility constraints (many women do not see how WhatsApp could help their particular type of work) as well as concerns about time, harassment, and managing the boundary between personal and commercial use of the platform.
Earlier, I was a homemaker. I raised my children. I did housework. I had difficulties using WhatsApp because I was less educated, and I did not understand it. So, my son helped me.
Emarti – Crochet & Bindi Designer
Greater Noida, IndiaEmarti is featured in this image
5) Sectors
WhatsApp use spans retail, services, home-based manufacturing, and agriculture.
Customer intensity drives depth of engagement: women in services and retail use the platform most actively for marketing and coordination; in agriculture, use centers more on group-based learning.
Women’s WhatsApp use for livelihoods is least common in agriculture and most common in services, a segment that includes education, health, ICT, legal, financial, skilled professionals, transport, repair, construction, domestic, hair/beauty, event planning, and hospitality.
6) Use varies across countries
Women’s WhatsApp use for livelihoods is broadly consistent across India, Kenya, and Nigeria.
Our results suggest Pakistan shows a different pattern, where three factors compound: women report lower rates of smartphone ownership, lower rates of self-employment income, and stronger social barriers to digital engagement.
Together, these likely contribute to lower rates of WhatsApp use for livelihoods, both overall and as a proportion of those with self-employment income.
7) Two transitions
We identify two distinct barriers.
- The first is between non-use and use, driven by device access, data costs, and perceived relevance.
- The second is between use and effective use, shaped by digital confidence, social networks, and the ability to navigate features strategically.
Access constraints weigh more heavily among lower-income women; utility and confidence gaps matter more as income (and the likelihood of having a smartphone) rises. Interventions supporting women’s WhatsApp use for livelihoods need to address both sets of barriers.
8) Safety shapes participation
Women navigating WhatsApp for livelihoods face two distinct risks:
- platform-wide threats, including fraud and scams, that affect all users, and;
- gender-based harassment that falls disproportionately on women.
Most women we spoke to reported strategies to manage both—leaving hostile groups, blocking unwanted contacts, preferring women-only spaces—rather than abandoning the platform.
Clear group norms and active moderation are critical; with them, WhatsApp groups can function as genuinely empowering spaces for learning and commerce.
9) Peer support and trusted intermediaries drive adoption
Social networks and trusted intermediaries emerge as prominent factors in both initial adoption and the transition to effective use.
Women frequently describe learning from others in their networks and being encouraged by trusted peers.
Programs that can work through these existing relationships are likely to find more traction than those that target women individually.
10) WhatsApp Business shows potential, but has limited uptake
The standalone Business app offers features that directly address barriers women face, including separate business profiles, product catalogs, and automated messaging.
Yet awareness and adoption remain low, particularly among lower-income women, who are least likely to know the app exists and most likely to benefit from its tools.
11) AI awareness is emerging but uneven.
Awareness and use of AI tools follow the same income gradient as effective WhatsApp use overall. Where women do use AI, use centers on practical tasks: drafting messages, generating captions, and polishing communication.
Use remains low across all income segments. The concentration of early adoption among higher-income women suggests that without deliberate targeting, lower-income women risk being later to benefit as AI tools become more deeply embedded in WhatsApp.
I ask [AI] for business ideas! I ask things like what captions I should write for my products and how to do product photography.
Business Owner
Bihar, India12) WhatsApp as infrastructure
94% of mobile internet users across the four countries have WhatsApp installed. At that level of penetration, the platform is not merely a tool people choose but a condition they are invited to inhabit. Women with self-employment income find customers, learn from peers, and conduct transactions within WhatsApp, not because it was designed for commerce, but because the suppliers, mentors, and customers they need to reach are already there.
WhatsApp is not digital public infrastructure; it is a privately owned platform. But through its ubiquity and everyday practice, it has become infrastructure within which livelihoods take place. This has implications for intervention design, shaping the norms, practices, and support structures of an ecosystem that already mediates economic opportunity at scale.
These findings call for coordinated action
As WhatsApp’s capabilities expand through AI and business features, coordinated action across all four groups will shape whether new capabilities narrow or widen the gap between the 16% of higher-income women and the 3% of lower-income women who currently use the platform effectively.
Platforms
WhatsApp, and platforms like it, can support women’s existing practices by maintaining low-data functionality, strengthening safety and group moderation tools, and offering lightweight embedded assistance.
Regulators
Policymakers can address foundational constraints: device affordability, data costs, digital safety, and connectivity.
Donors
Donors and implementers can build on the peer learning structures women already rely on, targeting the specific transition each woman faces, whether from non-use to use, or from use to effective use.
Communities
Communities and local intermediaries can anchor trust and support women in navigating digital participation safely.
WhatsApp and Women’s Livelihoods
How Everyday Digital Practices Shape Pathways to Economic Participation
Authors Caribou, Turn.io
