Facebook, the leading social media giant, that owns platforms like Facebook and Instagram, recently revealed that its new Artificial Intelligence-based advertising targeting service launched for commercial customers on WhatsApp instant messengers. The news was revealed at a conference in Brazil that took place on Thursday; this decision may be considered a turning point for the application that has been focusing on users’ anonymity and rejecting the methods of personalized advertisement placement for a long time.
WhatsApp, which was acquired by Meta (then known as Facebook) in 2014 for a staggering $22 billion, is the company’s biggest app in terms of daily users. However, despite its popularity, it has contributed only a sliver to Meta’s total revenue. In recent years, the social media giant has been introducing commerce and payment features on the app, including “business messaging” tools that companies can use to conduct customer service chats and send marketing materials to people who have shared their phone numbers with the companies.
New Features
The new AI tools, however, take things to the next level. Previously, the business messaging tools were blunt instruments, used to send blasts to all users who had opted in to receiving the company’s outreach. The new AI tools, on the other hand, will use behavior on Facebook and Instagram to target messages to those customers most likely to be receptive to them, provided the customers use the same opted-in phone number across accounts.
In addition to the AI-driven ad targeting program, Meta also announced the launch of a new AI chatbot to answer business inquiries directly in chat. The chatbot, which is currently in the testing phase, is part of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s goal to convince businesses to outsource their communications to automated tools. The chatbot will assist users with common requests such as finding catalogs or consulting business hours, similar to existing AI-powered customer service platforms.
The company also announced that it is adding Brazil’s instantaneous digital payment method, PIX, to its WhatsApp payment tool in the country. PIX, which was designed by the central bank, represented about 39% of the transactions made in Brazil last year, and offers similar services to the WhatsApp payments tool, such as money transfers between individuals and purchases from companies.
This explains why Meta, through the new AI-driven ad targeting program and other features it recently unveiled, is seriously inching closer to monetizing WhatsApp. While the business sector will welcome the decision, it was unclear how the regular users of the app will take the update since they were previously opting for its simplicity, the strong emphasis on privacy, and the absence of aggressive advertising.
Therefore, this announcement by Meta that the first AI-powered ad targeting businesses on WhatsApp is a new evolution for the messaging app. The new tools which will use the behavior on Facebook and Instagram to drive the message, are part of efforts in an attempt to monetize the app, which accounts for a small fraction of SM’s overall revenue. The company also unveiled the introduction of a new Artificial Intelligence chat application and of PIX, Brazil’s digital payments method, to its WhatsApp payment service. It is quite probable that business people will take the moves positively, but as for the app users, their take is not yet known.
Meta Unveils AI-Powered Video & Image Editing Tools for Facebook and Instagram
