A Major Shift in WhatsApp… The Goal is to Make Money
Meta is intensifying its efforts to make money through WhatsApp, its most widely used application daily.
Despite the app’s popularity and the astonishing acquisition price of $22 billion in 2014, WhatsApp has so far contributed only a small part of Meta’s total revenue.
Meta has launched its first “targeted ads” program for businesses, based on artificial intelligence, on WhatsApp, in an attempt to generate revenue from the popular chat service, as announced by the company at a conference in Brazil. CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the new tools in a video presented during the event.
This announcement marks a significant shift for WhatsApp, a service that has long promoted free services and privacy since its inception and has long avoided the targeted advertising tools present on other Meta apps like Facebook and Instagram.
The social media giant has been offering commerce and payment features on WhatsApp for a few years, including “business messaging” tools that companies can use for customer service conversations and to send marketing materials to people who have shared their phone numbers with these companies.
Directing Messages to Customers
Meta said it would use the same AI tools used on Facebook and Instagram to direct messages to customers most likely to accept them on WhatsApp.
These AI tools will allow businesses to improve the delivery of ads to users who are most likely to interact with them. This is very important for businesses on one hand, and for Meta on the other, as businesses will pay for these messages.
New Chatbot
At the conference, Meta also introduced a new AI-powered chatbot to directly respond to business inquiries in WhatsApp chats. This new chatbot will help users with common requests, such as finding catalogs or consulting business hours, similar to current AI-powered customer service platforms.
WhatsApp also announced the addition of new instant digital payment methods via its app and will facilitate money transfers between individuals and purchases from businesses.
