WhatsApp Business API is a messaging service made for businesses provided by WhatsApp. There is an interesting story behind this service before it started being offered to the public. Find out more here!
The Beginning of WhatsApp
Who doesn’t know WhatsApp? The instant messaging app that nobody can live without now was started in 2009 by Brian Actor and Jan Koum after leaving their jobs at Yahoo. The startup story began when Jan Koum first bought an iPhone. He saw the huge potential in the app industry after looking at the App Store. He thought of creating an application that would allow people to share their statuses. The name WhatsApp was chosen because the pronunciation is similar to the phrase “What’s Up”, which means asking about someone’s condition. WhatsApp currently is one of the most downloaded applications in the world.
Surpassing Facebook’s Reach
Five years after WhatsApp had been launched, the application reached more than 500 million active users per month. Facebook saw the huge potential that WhatsApp had as an instant messaging service application and eventually acquired WhatsApp with funds reaching $19.6 billion. At that time, WhatsApp had faced fast growth and had a reach of more than 1 million users every day. In addition, more than 70% of the total number of people using WhatsApp were daily active users, while Facebook only had a reach of 62%. It was also found that WhatsApp users sent 500 million photos every day.
From Competition to Acquisition
Six years after being acquired by Facebook, WhatsApp has become the most popular instant messaging application in the world, surpassing even Facebook’s own Messenger and the highly renowned WeChat. WhatsApp currently has two billion monthly active users (MAU) with daily active users reaching one billion. More than 65 billion messages are sent via WhatsApp everyday as compared to in 2011 where the daily number of messages sent only hit one billion. This shows that the pace of WhatsApp only escalated.
What efforts have WhatsApp and Facebook made to improve global connectivity and communication services for users? In 2016, WhatsApp initially charged both its Android and iOs users $1 per year to use the service. In the same year, WhatsApp also launched WhatsApp Web, an extension that allows users to access their accounts from a browser on a computer.
WhatsApp has been doing well with rapid growth in the number of users. However, in 2018, WhatsApp experienced a decline of more than 20% due to a drop in revenue in the second quarter of that year.
WhatsApp Business API
The slumping condition of the company made Facebook desperately in need of a source of income. The trend in using instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp for business purposes has made Facebook and WhatsApp take advantage of this. To respond to this need, WhatsApp released the WhatsApp Business API in 2018 to fulfil the needs of business in communication with consumers, as well as being the first step for WhatsApp to seek profits.
Through WhatsApp Business API, businesses can now send automated notifications, such as payment and delivery information, to consumers directly. This feature is the main driver of WhatsApp’s strategy for monetization. These automated notifications, also known as A2P messages, is expected to bring in $70 billion in 2020. Through the ecosystem that WhatsApp already has, there is a huge potential for Facebook to make WhatsApp the number one instant messaging service in the world while also achieving the desired benefits.
WhatsApp Business API also offers the ability to be accessed through unlimited devices all at the same time, which makes it a powerful tool for businesses to remain connected and responsive to customers who are already familiar with the WhatsApp platform.
With its Application Programming Interface (API), which is a software system that allows connecting two or more systems or applications, WhatsApp Business API is the most complete service version of WhatsApp as an effective solution for business communication services. WhatsApp Business API is able to integrate various messaging channels on one dashboard so that businesses can serve consumers in a more organized way.
As one of WhatsApp Global Business Solution Providers (BSPs), Qiscus offers WhatsApp Business API via Qiscus Multichannel Chat. A WhatsApp Business API dashboard is fully customizable to meet your business needs. Contact us to find out more!
