Facebook has been very clever with the way it monetises its platform. Back in 2006, while investors urged Zuckerberg to introduce banner ads, he told them to wait and to think long-term.
A few months later, Facebook rolled out the NewsFeed and Brand Pages to allow businesses to create a free presence on the site. The plan was very smart: let users subscribe to updates from businesses they love and once the NewsFeed becomes a near necessity, introduce “Sponsored stories” to let Page owners pay in order to reach a wider audience.
Also Read: You No Longer Need A Facebook Account To Use Messenger
Long story short, monetisation was not an overnight job: Facebook let users get accustomed to businesses in their personal feed and slowly but surely beefed up its advertising options to become the billion-dollar money making company that it is today.
Last week at Facebook’s Q2 earnings call, Facebook announced the same approach would be used with regards to the monetisation of Whatsapp and Messenger. Looking at how successful Facebook has become, he would be foolish not to do so, don’t you think?
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Facebook wants its messaging apps users to feel comfortable with chatting directly with businesses. It’s something that still remains on the wish-list but it takes time to change users’ habits. But this is not a problem, Facebook is ready to wait.
Mark Zuckerberg explained:
[quote]“The long-term bet is that by enabling people to have good organic interactions with businesses, that will end up being a massive multiplier on the value of the monetization down the road.”[/quote]
Doing business on Messenger is still in its infancy but “Business On Messenger” is already offering customer support services to e-commerce clients. As for Whatsapp, it’s already allowing businesses to set up accounts dedicated to sending marketing messages.
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It is still early days for business-to-customers chatting but expect to see it growing big-time in the coming months and years. Then, once it’s well cemented in the customs, Facebook will move forward and introduce pay-to-play features to amplify content marketing and customer service.
By repeating a strategy that worked wonders for the mother platform, Facebook is aiming to reiterate its success. And we all know this will probably happen.
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