Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, and over the past year, it became the world’s largest social channel. It has grown so huge that it was able to purchase Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.
In order to expand its empire in Social Media, Mark Zuckerberg spend almost $21 Billion dollars. It’s a hefty bill, but looking at it now, that purchase is worth it. With over 4 billion monthly users in Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp combined, Mark, can bring these billions of users into one big pool.
The Idea of Integrated Messaging
It all started with the idea to make these social media work simultaneously, especially in the messaging part. Mark Zuckerberg wanted to deliver a streamlined messaging experience to billions of users. It allows users to interact with family or friends even if they don’t use the same apps.
Imagine if that features really happened, it must have been weird. Users might have trouble differentiating Instagram DM’s and WhatsApp if they become integrated with Facebook’s massaging service. Not to mention, different behavior in each Social Media.
Now let’s take a look at Facebook Messenger, the user is likely to use this platform to talk to family or friends, and it is similar to WhatsApp. But Instagram messaging on the other hand is quite different. Instagram Users are mostly comprised of young people to share content.
Looking at it from Business Perspective, imagine life would be easier for marketers when cross-platform integrations happen. Even a small business owner can take benefits from this by taking branding to a whole new level, and they can add their phone number to make an appointment with a client.
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp as Business Platform
The Idea of a cross-platform messaging service might be sound too drastic, but Facebook is very serious about making it a Business Platform. A series of features had been rolled out, and it aims for businesses better connect with customers across platforms.
The Company said that it wants its family apps to be the best place for business. To support online business, Facebook added a new WhatsApp click-to-chat button tool on Instagram, so the customers can interact with the shop. Another big thing to help business owners is a price quote request and a buy option, and available on Messenger, DM’s, and WhatsApp.
Facebook now is more business than social media as it is more focused on Advertising. It is generating almost 98% of The Company’s income. The way they do this is by Target Matching and Targeted Advertising.
The core business is matching user content and turning it into data and collecting user profiles. And from there, Facebook can offer advertisers a place for their ads that matches the targeted audience.