WhatsApp is slowly becoming a business-friendly app.
Meta has allegedly invested in a Singaporean startup to make WhatsApp a better place for small-business owners by helping them sell directly in the messaging app, per Tech Crunch.
WhatsApp has been noted to be more frequently used by business owners in interacting with potential customers, with Meta adding simple tools for small businesses to keep in touch with customers in 2018, per CNBC.
Meta - Take App Investment Details
Meta has recently backed Singaporean startup Take App to make WhatsApp, the company's other messaging app, into a platform for merchants to sell on.
Although Meta has not disclosed the details of its investment in Take App, the startup's leadership is familiar with the company's inner workings.
The startup was founded by former Facebook engineering manager Youmin Kim, who left Meta last year to work on a new product that promises to "bridge the digital gap" for small-business owners in Southeast Asia.
Take App initially started as a non-profit to help small restaurants in Singapore accept online orders at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Kim realized there was a significant opportunity to turn Take App into a commercial venture.
According to Kim, WhatsApp is the most common way to talk to businesses. However, using it creates a large operation cost as employees have to respond to many conversations.
With Take App, a customer will only need to fill out a business' order form and it will be sent to the business as an order message, per Take App's official website.
The order message can also be used by business owners or employees to initiate contact directly on WhatsApp, making the process more streamlined than responding to individual messages.
While Take App was originally made for small restaurants, it has since branched to provide its services for bakeries, grocery stores, and beauty salons.
Although there are "western" CRM solutions that provide the same service as Take App, such as Germany-based Charles, Kim said that they were found to be too expensive or difficult by small-business owners in Singapore and Southeast Asia. As such, Take App eventually focused on traditional businesses with a digital gap.
In addition to making the ordering process for customers simpler on WhatsApp, it is also free to use by small-business owners, with its premium only offering a few advanced features.
Why Businesses Use WhatsApp
WhatsApp, through its business-only version, WhatsApp Business, has been providing businesses with a way to directly interact with customers who can search for products and indicate purchasing interests in the app alone.
According to Verint, the messaging app has penetrated most if not all of the whole world, with it being the communication platform of choice in EMEA, Latin America, and parts of Asia. This popularity may be due to WhatsApp providing an alternative to places where SMS messaging is expensive.
Although WhatsApp usage in North America, it isn't without its users. 12% of adults in the United States are using WhatsApp, with Statista projecting that 85.8 Americans may be using it by 2023.
Additionally, the success of businesses using WhatsApp to directly communicate with customers can't be denied. The messaging app allows businesses to create mobile storefronts for their businesses with catalogs and accept secure payments using Facebook Pay.
