Zuckerberg announces WhatsApp Business for Brazil, UK, Indonesia, Mexico, Colombia

At the WhatsApp Business Summit in Brazil on Thursday, Zuckerberg said the ultimate goal was to enable users to find, message and buy from a business all in the same WhatsApp chat.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday announced a new update that will enable WhatsApp users to search for businesses -- by category or name -- directly in their WhatsApp UI. Meta, previously known as Facebook, bought WhatsApp in 2014.

At the WhatsApp Business Summit in Brazil on Thursday, Zuckerberg said the ultimate goal was to enable users to find, message and buy from a business all in the same WhatsApp chat. The new Business Search feature will be available Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and the UK.

The CEO said these new features were introduced to offer an enhanced end-to-end commerce experience for users and connect with their favourite brands while discovering new ones. According to a blogpost, one of the features is 'Find a Business' in which one can find a larger brand on WhatsApp using its Application Programming Interface (API) and discover a local merchant (SMB) on WhatsApp.

However, this is available only in Brazil. Another feature is 'Buy' where one can pay a local merchant directly on WhatsApp.

This feature is currently being tested in Brazil and is expected to be expanded to other markets as well. The official announcement blogpost also said once people find a business they want to chat with, they can ask product questions, browse their catalogue of goods and services and add items to a cart so the business knows what they want to buy. (ANI)

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