WhatsApp’s Yellow Pages-style business directory launches in five countries
WhatsApp is officially launching a new business directory feature across Brazil, the UK, Indonesia, Mexico, and Colombia. Meta says users will either be able to browse by business category (like travel or banking) or else search directly to find companies that are contactable on the service. Those signed up for WhatsApp’s Business Platform across all five countries will appear in the directory, while in Brazil, the directory will also be open to small businesses.
“While millions of businesses in Brazil use [WhatsApp] for chat, we haven’t made it easy to discover businesses or buy from them, so people end up having to use work-arounds,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “The ultimate goal here is to make it so you can find, message and buy from a business all in the same WhatsApp chat.”
“The ultimate goal here is to make it so you can find, message and buy from a business all in the same WhatsApp chat.”
The launch of the feature comes as WhatsApp is increasingly pitching itself as a service for people to use to message businesses in addition to friends and family. As of October 2020, Meta said that over 175 million people around the world used WhatsApp to message business accounts every day. The service has also added other features focused on e-commerce, like support for in-app shopping carts.
Today’s WhatsApp press release says it is testing the merchant payments feature in Brazil “with multiple payment partners.”
WhatsApp’s business-focused features are notable for being one of the few ways the service is monetized directly via the WhatsApp Business API. It doesn’t show ads in the same way as Meta’s other major services, Instagram and Facebook. (Though businesses do not have to pay to be included in the new directory search feature.) But a Meta executive told Reuters last year that ads are likely to be a part of WhatsApp’s business model “in some form or another” in the future.
WhatsApp is officially launching a new business directory feature across Brazil, the UK, Indonesia, Mexico, and Colombia. Meta says users will either be able to browse by business category (like travel or banking) or else search directly to find companies that are contactable on the service. Those signed up for…
Recent Posts
- Fujifilm’s X-T50 has a special dial for film simulations
- Samsung mocks Apple’s crushing iPad Pro ad with its own ‘UnCrush’ pitch
- Netflix to add more live content, including two NFL games on Christmas Day 2024
- Google I/O 2024: all the news from the developer conference
- Quordle today – hints and answers for Thursday, May 16 (game #843)
Archives
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- December 2011