Sat 18 September 2021:
With the release of a new WhatsApp update, some users will be able to utilize the messaging service as a business directory.
In São Paulo, Brazil, a trial program to test the service will launch, providing thousands of local businesses and services a place on the Facebook-owned app.
“I’m excited we’re starting to pilot a local business directory within WhatsApp,” said Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp.
“This will help you find and contact local businesses, like your neighbourhood coffee shop, florist, clothing store and more.”
If the Yellow Pages-style service proves to be a success, it will be expanded to other countries in the following months, with India and Indonesia being the most likely markets to follow.
With over 2 billion users worldwide, the world’s most popular messaging app usually conducts local pilots of new features before implementing them globally.
“Based on feedback from the people who try it over the next few months, we’ll look at expanding this service to other cities and other types of businesses on WhatsApp,” Mr Cathcart said.
It’s Facebook’s latest attempt to monetize the app’s massive user base by courting business users with the promise of new revenue sources and direct access to customers.
Other Facebook applications have also received in-app shopping functionality, however WhatsApp is unique in that it has so far avoided submitting to Facebook’s ad-driven economic model.
“There’s definitely a route on ads, which is Facebook’s core business model, that over the long term I think in some form or another will be part of the business model for WhatsApp,” Matt Idema, Facebook’s vice president of business messaging, told Reuters.
Any new function will almost certainly be scrutinized, especially when it comes to consumer privacy. Before selling the app to Facebook for $19 billion in 2014, this was always a top priority for WhatsApp’s founders, but an imposed update earlier this year caused controversy because the app stated that it intended to share specific information with its parent firm.
WhatsApp claimed the information would be used purely for commerce purposes, but the uproar forced the firm to halt the deployment and change the conditions.
WhatsApp claims to have built the latest upgrade in a “private way,” and that it would not track users’ location or the businesses they visit.
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