Like Google, Facebook is making new moves toward monetized e-commerce via WhatsApp and Instagram. Facebook, the parent company of WhatsApp, earlier this month published a blog explaining how its WhatsApp Business app can be used by small retailers and other users to improve selling products in certain countries by introducing a new shopping catalog feature. Its installation is described in a 1.5-minute video on YouTube.
A new “mobile storefront” showcases the products offered by its business customers directly on the app. They are now able to market them with images, descriptions and prices, enabling them to meet their customers online within the app – rather than diverting them to a third-party website or sending them photos one at a time.
The new catalog feature has become available in the U.S., Mexico, the U.K., Germany, Brazil, India and Indonesia. It will be rolled out in other countries over the next few weeks. More than five million companies were using WhatsUp Business on Android last spring, when the application was extended to iOS smartphones. There must be more now.
In March, Facebook launched a shopping feature on Instagram that allows users to immediately check out and pay for items flagged as being for sale, without leaving the app. With the latest e-commerce feature in WhatsApp, payment transactions will still occur off-site, however, unless the parties make use of WhatsApp Pay, which is for the moment only available in India.
Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014. It has since been working to boost revenue from the service. WhatsApp has 1.5 billion users and, although its News Feed product is a hit with advertisers, the service is struggling to find new users and to generate revenues. Facebook has also indicated its wish to launch a much-debated crypto-currency of its own, the Libra.
Facebook announced last year that it would be adding a fee for businesses to send messages to its customers. Businesses that send customer services messages or marketing messages via WhatsApp will do so at a fixed fee in return for delivery confirmation.
Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has already said that he plans to add augmented reality and other services to help business customers to communicate and engage with consumers on WhatsApp.
We are not sure how customers will respond. Some may find the new app very convenient, but others will probably continue to consider WhatsApp and Instagram as ways to communicate with friends, family and business partners. They may also look at it as an intrusion into their privacy.
It’s different with applications such as Apple Play or Alipay, which don’t have the communication function. The consumer is evolving in any case. Interestingly, however, the new app of WhatsApp is being introduced amid reports that Facebook is losing users among the younger people in France and Germany, and perhaps in other countries as well.
The U.S. has already scrutinized Facebook for its use of data. Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Justice Department have started looking into the possible anti-trust aspects of Google’s planned acquisition of Fitbit. Reportedly, Facebook had been a candidate to the takeover before the final $2.1 billion deal was signed.
