Meta, the Parent company of WhatsApp, has announced that WhatsApp Business-a platform for small scale businesses, has reached 200 million monthly active users. This was up from 50 million users gathered in 2020, just two years after its 2018 launch.
Its 2020 milestone was achieved due to the COVID-19 pandemic which drove physical businesses to search for virtual ways of reaching their customers. The current numbers represent a 300% growth rate in the three years in between, indicating that WhatsApp Business has continued to grow quite quickly.
This further means businesses are clearly doing significant business online, enough to want to remain there. Overall, it represents a significant milestone as WhatsApp business moves to achieve its “year of efficacy” as touted.
Meta also announced some new features on the app that users should anticipate. These include easier features such as ad creation, personalized message, catalogs, message statistics and so on to make the app suitable to its users would be introduced.
According to the business app, it will enable numerous small businesses worldwide that operate their market on WhatsApp to develop, purchase, and publish a Facebook or Instagram ad straight within the business app. That means no Facebook account would be required to get started; all businesses need would be an email address and a method of payment.
Also, that the ads would be to the users’ advantage because it will be an advertisement means which will channel potential customers to business owners.
Another interesting feature to expect is a premium service that will allow retailers to automate the process of sending tailored messages to their clients. However, there is no price information provided by the company yet. The company said that the service would be tested in a twinkling.
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Meta in past months
Earlier this year, Meta set its 2023 goal to align towards efficacy by calling it year of “greater efficacy.”
In retrospect, Mark Zuckerberg during Meta’s Q3 earnings call, mentioned that “click-to-WhatsApp” ads surpassed the annual revenue run rate of $1.5 billion with 80% year-on-year growth.
Regarding the new resolution, Meta has began to take concrete initiatives to increase revenue from premium communications. It announced adjustments to the price structure and messaging categories on WhatsApp in February. Utility, authentication (to deliver one-time passcodes), marketing, and user-initiated service interactions inclusive.
Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg said in the Q1 2023 earnings call;
I shared last quarter that click-to-message ads reached a $10 billion revenue run rate. And since then, the number of businesses using our other business messaging service — paid messaging on WhatsApp
Mark Zuckerberg in Q1 2023
According to a report by TechCrunch, Meta is yet to declare a separate revenue for WhatsApp Business instead lumping it in within the “other” category. The platform had excellent growth in revenue from the first quarter, but lately, there has been a decline in other line items, resulting in a 5% year-over-year decline for the category.
In April, WhatsApp business introduced a means to pay merchants for users in Brazil, and a month later, it introduced a similar feature in Singapore. Early this month, WhatsApp debuted the channels function to permit broadcast chats from various groups, while the corporation also stated that it was looking into ways to integrate payments into its systems.
About Meta
Meta builds technologies that help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses. When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed the way people connect. Apps like Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp further empowered billions around the world. Now, Meta is moving beyond 2D screens toward immersive experiences like augmented and virtual reality to help build the next evolution in social technology.
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