Your business can now get a WhatsApp account
Messaging app users will get much-improved business search functionality
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Meta has added new business directory features toWhatsAppfor users in Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Colombia, and the UK.
Users on theencrypted messaging servicewill now be able to browse businesses by category – for example, travel or banking – or search for one by name to find it. And it will potentially save people from having to find phone numbers on websites or searching through their contacts list.
In Brazil, the business directory search function will also list small businesses as well, and it is also testing in-chat secure payments in the region.
What’s next for Whatsapp?
The news comes as Meta may be trying to squeeze out more revenue from the 175 million people it says use aWhatsAppbusiness account every day, as advertising revenue from its core Facebook and Instagram businesses decline.
Facebookannounced its first-ever decline in usersin February 2022, and in October 2022 it posted a 4% year-on-year revenue decline in the three months from July through September.
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The tech giant begantesting a payments service in Brazil in 2020but struggled to get approval from the Brazilian central bank alongside the necessary partners to make it work.
In April, WhatsApp received approval for WhatsApp to extend its payments service toan additional 100 million usersin the Indian market, out of the over 400 million people in India who use the service.
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We may be seeing a closer convergence between WhatsApp and the business world. AtDreamforce 2022,Salesforceclaimed it will give businesses a new way to communicate with customers via WhatsApp integrations with multiple SalesforceCRMapplications.
Salesforceclaimed the integrationwill create more “convenient, integrated and personalized experiences between people and businesses”.
Will McCurdy has been writing about technology for over five years. He has a wide range of specialities including cybersecurity, fintech, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, cloud computing, payments, artificial intelligence, retail technology, and venture capital investment. He has previously written for AltFi, FStech, Retail Systems, and National Technology News and is an experienced podcast and webinar host, as well as an avid long-form feature writer.
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