Today, Meta revealed that WhatsApp Business, the service intended exclusively for small enterprises, has reached 200 million monthly active users. This is an increase from its previous all-time high of 50 million in 2020.
As the company keeps pursuing its “year of efficiency,” it has features like easier ad creation and a personalized message service for WhatsApp Business users has also been launched.
Mark Zuckerberg is investing billions of dollars in the creation of a metaverse. To compensate, the corporation is increasing revenue generation through other channels such as WhatsApp.
Starting today, WhatsApp Business users will be allowed to generate “click-to-WhatsApp” ads without a Facebook account, according to the Meta-owned chat service. The business stated that sellers may develop, buy, and publish Facebook and Instagram ads directly from the app.
During Meta’s third-quarter earnings call last year, Zuckerberg stated that “click-to-WhatsApp” advertisements had surpassed the annual revenue run rate of $1.5 billion with 80% year-on-year growth.
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WhatsApp Business is also introducing a premium service that will allow retailers to automate the process of sending tailored messages to their clients. WhatsApp did not provide pricing information, only stating that the feature will be tested soon.
According to the screenshots provided by the company, businesses would be able to deliver different messages to different customer lists. For example, a vendor with a purchase button can send a discount code to new consumers.
Meta has taken real initiatives in recent months to increase money received from paid messaging. 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 were among these categories.
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“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 — has grown by 40% quarter-over-quarter,” Zuckerberg said in the Q1 2023 earnings call.
Currently, the business does not report distinct revenue for WhatsApp, instead lumping it in with “other” income. The WhatsApp Business platform had excellent growth in messaging revenue in the March quarter, but this was offset by “a decline in other line items,” resulting in a 5% year-over-year decline for the category.
WhatsApp has also taken moves to expand its payment services on the platform. It introduced the option to pay merchants for users in Brazil in April. A month later, the company launched a comparable feature in Singapore. WhatsApp debuted the channels function earlier this month to permit broadcast chats from various groups. The company also indicated at the time that it is looking into ways to integrate payments into channels.
