Facebook Messenger wants to become the new Yellow Pages (FB)

June 30, 2017

Facebook Messenger wants to become the new Yellow Pages (FB)

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Facebook is rolling out a new Discover tab for Messenger to make it easier for users to find and engage with brands and chatbots, according to Business Insider.

Messenger bots are already en route to revolutionize the way consumers interact with businesses. First unveiled during Facebook's F8 developer conference in April, the Discover tool is likely part of a wider strategy to make Messenger a core communication hub between users and businesses.

Earlier this year, Facebook Messenger VP David Marcus solidified Messenger's aim to become the new Yellow Pages. With more than 20 million businesses actively responding to messages and 100,000 bots, the messaging platform is not far from its goal. Here’s how Messenger will amplify the value and usage of its channel:

Ensure high-quality, compelling and easy communication for users and brands. By enabling users to search for their favorite business or look through categories and select bots that suit their needs, more and more people will be instantly connected with their favorite brands, fostering enhanced communication via the platform.
Serve as a directory for locating people and businesses. With one of the largest social networks powering it, Messenger is well placed to seriously threaten Google as the primary mode of online discovery. The high engagement rates of chat apps as well as Messenger's massive reach positions it as a Trojan horse for overall online discovery. This threat is further compounded by Messenger’s perceived convenience; it provides a platform through which users can discover local businesses via mapping locations and brands by name, and it supports engagement through its rich communications platform.
Offer businesses added convenience. Facebook is already an established portal for business discovery — over 1 billion users visit Facebook Pages every month looking for more information from businesses. However, Messenger provides businesses with a conversational and sticky avenue to reach and engage with customers, such as through the deployment of chatbots as customer service agents or concierges. Almost half of US consumers say they prefer to use some form of messaging for customer service, according to Aspect.

The Discover tab presents Messenger's efforts to provide businesses with the necessary features to drive increased business-to-consumer (B2C) interactions. Many businesses and users were left wanting after the potential chatbots provided turned out to be hype. Users were largely disappointed with the bots’ inability to understand many simple demands, and businesses couldn’t find a specific use case.

But it looks like things are turning around for Messenger. There are now 100,000 bot developers who have built 100,000 active bots on the Messenger Platform. That’s up 233% from the 30,000 bots on Messenger six months after its launch in April last year.

The top four messaging apps — Facebook's Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, and Viber — now claim nearly 3 billion monthly active users combined, narrowly outnumbering the combined active users on the world's four largest social networks, including Facebook. These numbers have caught the attention of a wide range of businesses, publishers among them.

BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on messaging apps for publishers that:

Breaks down the pros and cons of each major messaging app.
Explains the different ways publishers can distribute content on messaging apps.
Highlights the differences between native and linked content.
Looks at the potential barriers that could limit chat apps' utility for publishers.

To get the full report, subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> Learn More Now

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