Facebook launched WhatsApp Business API

People around the world use WhatsApp, one of the popular messaging applications, to connect with each other. To expand the user base not limit just the personal conversation, Facebook launched a new service called WhatsApp Business API to help businesses having a message communication with their customers. It allows the companies to send the end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) messages to the customers who initiate the chat or request the information. The business can customize the response such as shipping confirmation or appointment reminder to notify the customer as well.

WhatsApp Business API is free of charge if the businesses reply to their customers’ message within 24 hours. If more than 24 hours, the business sides will get charged with the fixed rate which is significantly different in each country. (The range is about $0.01 to $0.09 per message). The time count will restart a 24-hour cycle in each replied message from the customers.

With this service, WhatsApp has become one of the most significant sources for the inbound marketing, and it is also the powerful impact for both businesses and customers.

Reference:

https://marketingland.com/facebook-looks-to-monetize-whatsapp-with-new-business-api-ads-that-open-chats-in-the-messaging-app-245311

Adweek: Facebook Begins Rolling Out Ads Within Messenger

The future of digital media is now. Mobile messaging, which is growing at a rapid rate and has significant engagement from users will soon have annoying ads. This of course is a small price to pay given that the ability to send messages to others is virtually free. That said, if what app includes ads, does it risk losing all of its market share to another app that doesn't show ads? Consumers certainly have many to choose from. I myself have 4 to 5 different messaging apps on my phone that I use interchangeably. This includes Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, GroupMe, WhatsApp, Slack.

Facebook has been pushing Messenger and all its new features heavily, basically forcing me to download the app. They will have to be careful and make sure to preserve the user experience.

The worrisome thing, like all internet targeting, is how deeply Facebook will utilize the information. Maintaining confidentially will be important because what I text to others is very private. I hope standards could be set in the future with regard to safeguarding our information, because I believe it will be increasingly more important.



http://www.adweek.com/digital/facebook-begins-rolling-out-ads-within-messenger/

WhatsApp Hits 900M Monthly Users, Edges Closer To An Actual Business Model

The 19bn price point that Facebook paid to acquire WhatsApp, the cross-platform messaging app last year, raised a few eyebrows. Mostly, because it was unclear how the company would monetize the free messaging platform's growing user base.

Contrary to other acquisitions by the social media giant, and the lack of immediate success, unlike Instagram, WhatsApp's revenue generation has remained a mystery and with it, so has what Facebook paid to acquired it. With a quarterly steady growth in Monthly Users and as the updates for the Messenger app become clearer with the introduction of "M", a personal concierge service that connects users to brands, it seems that that's what might be in store for the mobile-first application.

This would be a new strategy that steps away from more "traditional" forms of digital advertising and as WhatsApp is set to break the 1bn user barrier, an exciting one.

Original article
http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/04/still-not-hatin/#.dc3kwd:HkuR

Do you want to keep your messages private? WhatsApp them!

We all use some kind of instant messaging and most of us know that somewhere, somehow, someone other our intended recipient might read our messages. This bothers at least some of us. Recent developments at WhatsApp, however, may make all of us relax a bit more about privacy.

The Android version of popular messaging app WhatsApp now supports end-to-end encryption, thanks to a partnership with secure-messaging developer Open Whisper Systems. Now, when Android users of the app message each other, the messages are encrypted before they leave the user's smartphone, and only decrypted once they are received by their intended recipients.
Messages with end-to-end encryption can't even be read by the company doing the sending — in this case, WhatsApp and its parent company, Facebook. With iOS and other platform support coming soon, it's a big privacy increase for WhatsApp and its more than 600 million users.

Privacy advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently released a scorecard in which it assessed 39 messaging apps on their basic cryptographic practices, citing seven specific criteria. TextSecure, Signal and RedPhone were among the few to meet all seven criteria. WhatsApp met only two of the seven at the time; now it should meet a third.