Recent reports suggest Facebook might soon allow businesses to contact customers directly through its instant messaging service WhatsApp.
According to Bloomberg, the social networking giant is currently testing some features in its standalone messaging app Messenger including business-to-consumer interaction. It is expected that the same features will also be rolled out to WhatsApp.
The report cites Facebook CFO David Wehner at a JPMorgan technology conference on May 18 in Boston saying “We think that enabling that B2C messaging has good business potential for us.”
“As we learn those things, I think there’s going to be opportunities to bring some of those things to WhatsApp, but that’s more long-term than the near-term.”
Facebook is currently looking at an option of enabling B2C messaging feature which will let companies contact their customers directly through messenger app. It’s unclear how the social networking giant will charge the businesses for reaching out to the consumers.
To recap, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $22bn (£14bn, €19bn) in 2014. WhatsApp currently has around 800 million monthly active users. The instant messaging service had crossed 700 million active users in January, and added a record 100 million users in last four months.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said earlier that once WhatsApp reaches the 1 billion user milestone, it could start to become a meaningful business.
