Executives at Facebook leveraged the company's annual developer conference to promote new tools for businesses that will support the future of digital commerce. The social network introduced a handful of programming updates aimed at helping companies utilize WhatsApp, Instagram, messaging applications, and photo-sharing on Facebook to attract new customers and retain existing ones. CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that although the pandemic forced the company to scale back the in-person presence at the engaging F8 conference to a virtual event, it allows executives to refocus on ways developers can innovate on the company's platforms.
Zuckerberg added, "When developers have access to the right tools, they can build things that create value for everyone, whether those relate to social experiences that bring joy to people or new ways to keep businesses afloat during crises." Ankur Prasad, Facebook's director of business messaging, explained that the company is enabling developers to access the Instagram API to build new messaging tools. For example, the changes could allow customers to obtain automatic responses to questions such as when a company opens, without leaving Instagram to find out about a different application.
### Intensifying Offers
The social media giant, based in Menlo Park, California, is trying to enhance online offerings for businesses amid a trend toward the return of traditional in-store shopping. Executives at Facebook previously warned that the company might experience slow revenue growth in the second half of the year due to the easing of lockdowns and people's increasing comfort with returning to offline activities.
Facebook also mentioned that it is expanding the ways businesses can communicate with customers using WhatsApp, such as alerting people when popular products are back in stock. Ajit Varma, head of business products at WhatsApp, stated, "We are creating new features for businesses regarding receiving responses, so customers can reply quickly and easily, or tell the company what they want," noting that nearly 175 million people message businesses via WhatsApp daily.
Facebook is attempting to increase ways to monetize its messaging businesses, which expanded to include customer service products that help companies engage with people across WhatsApp and Messenger last year. The company also acquired Kustomer Inc to launch customer service software and invested in Jio Platforms, an Indian internet giant, with which WhatsApp plans to form a business partnership.
