Meta Reports 600 Million Daily Chats Between Users and Businesses on Its Platforms

Meta is intensifying its focus on business messaging to drive revenue, as highlighted by Mark Zuckerberg during the Q3 2023 earnings call. Zuckerberg announced plans to integrate generative AI-based bots into business operations, particularly for enhancing customer support capabilities.

He revealed that interactions between users and businesses total over 600 million per day across Meta’s platforms, a new metric for the company’s earnings reports. However, he did not clarify how many of these interactions consist of marketing or informational messages, such as ticket updates or order confirmations.

Importantly, Zuckerberg noted that over 60% of WhatsApp users in India—the app's largest market, boasting more than 500 million users—are in contact with business accounts. Many small business owners also utilize WhatsApp Business accounts, benefiting from features like business pages, product catalogs, and message broadcasting.

In Q3 2023, Meta reported a substantial revenue of $293 million, marking a 53% year-over-year increase, primarily attributed to the success of the WhatsApp Business platform. In June, the company announced that WhatsApp Business had surpassed 200 million monthly active users.

Meta monetizes business messaging through various strategies. On WhatsApp, different message types are categorized, and businesses are charged based on conversation sessions. The platform also provides click-to-message and click-to-WhatsApp advertising options. Earlier this year, Zuckerberg highlighted that these ad formats have achieved a $10 billion annual run rate and continue to grow.

Recently, WhatsApp rolled out several new business tools, such as custom personalized customer messages and WhatsApp Flows that enhance the in-app shopping experience. In September, the company unveiled plans for a verification system for WhatsApp, featuring custom web pages and support for linking up to 10 devices to a single account for better customer query management.

Meta is also exploring the potential of generative AI to empower business accounts in responding to customer inquiries related to purchases and support.

"Now I believe this is a significant opportunity for innovative business AIs that we discussed earlier, which will enable any business to easily establish an AI for customer messaging, assisting with commerce and support," Zuckerberg stated during the call.

He further emphasized that in markets like Thailand and Vietnam, businesses can manage customer responses manually due to lower labor costs. In contrast, other regions may benefit significantly from Meta's Business AI bots. The rise of generative AI has also inspired numerous AI-driven customer support startups, attracting substantial interest from investors and potential buyers.