DBT Bureau
Bhubaneswar, 7 June:
Meta has introduced its first AI-powered ad targeting programme for businesses on WhatsApp, aiming to generate revenue from the widely-used chat service. The company made this announcement on Thursday during a conference in Brazil.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the new tools in a video shown at the event. This marks a change for WhatsApp, known for its strong privacy focus and avoidance of targeted ads, unlike Meta’s other apps, Facebook and Instagram.
For years, Meta has been adding shopping and payment features to WhatsApp, including tools for companies to handle customer service and send marketing messages to users who shared their phone numbers. Previously, these tools sent messages to all opted-in users. Now, new AI tools will use behavior from Facebook and Instagram to target messages to the most interested customers, as long as they use the same phone number for all accounts.
Meta has been trying harder to make money from WhatsApp, its most popular app by daily users. Despite WhatsApp’s popularity and its $22 billion acquisition in 2014, it has so far added only a small amount to Meta’s total revenue.
At the conference, Meta also launched a new AI chatbot to handle business inquiries in chat. This aligns with Zuckerberg’s aim to get businesses to use automated tools for communication. The chatbot will help with common tasks like finding catalogs or checking business hours, similar to current AI customer service platforms.
Meta also announced it is adding Brazil’s instant digital payment method, PIX, to its WhatsApp payment tool in the country. PIX, created by the central bank, accounted for about 39% of transactions in Brazil last year. It offers similar services to WhatsApp’s payment tool, like money transfers between individuals and purchases from businesses. Last year, WhatsApp also began offering payment services from competing providers in India.
