Meta said Thursday that it is rolling out its Meta Verified program to WhatsApp Business users in Brazil, India, Indonesia and Colombia, and eventually more countries. Subscription plans for this service start at $14 per month.
The company is also adding more features to its business messaging service and allowing businesses to use its APIs to serve customers through in-app calls.
Meta launched its verification program for creators in March 2023 and extended it to businesses in September 2023. Until now, the program was limited to facebook and instagram.
The company said merchants who sign up for the plan on WhatsApp will get a badge and phishing protection after sharing their business details with the company. These businesses will also get a verified WhatsApp channel for their marketing.
The plan also allows businesses to use their WhatsApp Business account from multiple devices. Additionally, they can create a personalized web page with their company details that they can share with clients or suppliers.
WhatsApp already offers some of these features with WhatsApp Premium, which it began testing with some businesses in some regions in 2022, but never extended its rollout to other markets.
Meta is also introducing the ability for users to call large companies using WhatsApp via API, such as banks or airlines. For users, this will work like calling a customer service number, but through the app. Until now, WhatsApp Business users had to use their personal phone numbers to answer customer calls.
WhatsApp said it would charge businesses for this service, but has not yet revealed any pricing details.
Focus on businesses
Also incoming is a personalized messaging service for businesses that allows merchants to send messages such as coupon codes, information about new releases or birthday wishes to customers.
With more than 200 million monthly users on WhatsApp Business, Meta is trying to create a complete set of solutions that businesses can leverage to communicate with their customers. Meta also separately said it is launching new ai-powered tools for automated customer support and ad creation today.
Click ads for WhatsApp have worked well for Meta. In 2023, Zuckerberg said these ads have reached a $10 billion annual run rate and are growing. India-based logistics company Shiprocket has also seen positive results for traders.
“The introduction of click ads for WhatsApp provides marketers with a more effective marketing channel, generating a strong 3-4x return on ad spend (ROAS), further driving transactions and engagement on the platform,” Praful Poddar, Product Manager. Shiprocket official told TechCrunch.
Last year, Meta focused on creating shopping experiences within WhatsApp, but is now working on features related to messaging and customer service, as it is a major source of cash for the company.
During his Call for results for the first quarter of 2024The company's chief financial officer, Susan Li, noted that Meta's family of apps generated revenue of $380 million, driven largely by business messaging on WhatsApp.
In A study Recently published with Bain & Co, Meta claims that there is a huge opportunity in conversational commerce in India as out of 650 million active users on social media and messaging platforms, only 200 million people shop online. The company said existing payment and commerce services only serve the top 200 million users. With WhatsApp, which has over 400 million users in India, the company sees a big opportunity to attract more merchants and make shopping easier for the rest of the user base.
