Facebook intends to start making the almost 22 billion dollars spent three years ago on the purchase of WhatsApp. It was in February 2014, and since then, the social network has improved and expanded the application with small but meaningful changes. Some are invisible to the user. Now it seems that they think of a WhatsApp for companies.
It will not be an easy task for the “Caralibro” to recover such an investment. Still, it seems that it is outlining where “the shots” of the company are going to go to monetize the application apart from crossing the data of both. And it also seems that Zuckerberg has not warmed their heads too much because what they seem to be testing on WhatsApp is very similar to the “fan page” of Facebook: a company profile.
WhatsApp Has Recently Published An Application That Aims To Connect Companies With Their Target Audience
In this case, WhatsApp for companies, the download is free, and it seems that at the start, it will not cost money to SMEs to economically feed themselves from large companies, corporations, and agglomerates that want to use the messaging application to establish a new communication channel for the Customer Support.
In other words, a trial runs to see to what extent companies (and users) may be interested in establishing communication through an application that has continued to grow in several users since Facebook acquired it (they already have 1,300 million registered users and more than one billion daily users).
This WhatsApp for companies intends to become the communication vehicle for local commerce or, as Idema affirms, “for someone to place an order at a pastry shop or take a look at the catalog of a clothing store in the neighborhood, or that shoemakers can be in contact with hundreds of customers just by using a mobile phone, answering messages with ease.” This approach, however, contrasts with the fact that the service is free for SMEs. We will see.
Communication systems such as Call Centers evolved towards Contact Centers, including social networks among their communication channels, and the company must go where its customers are. We will have to wait to see what the initiative is, how and who is charged for the service, and if it offers added value to the company-client relationship.
