WhatsApp's Business-User Base Grew Tenfold From 2019 -- Update

By Dave Sebastian 

The messaging platform WhatsApp said it has 50 million users of its business app world-wide each month, a milestone showing steep growth since the app's 2018 launch and progress in Facebook Inc.'s efforts to generate revenue from the service.

Its current pool of WhatsApp Business users, primarily small to medium-size businesses, reflects 10-fold growth from early 2019, the last time similar data were released.

WhatsApp on Thursday also said it has added a feature that allows users to scan a QR code and chat directly with a business and for businesses to share product catalogs on WhatsApp as links. Before the feature was introduced, users had to add a business's phone number manually to message them.

The move is the latest effort by Facebook, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014, to offer more e-commerce tools to companies. Facebook earlier this year backed away from efforts to sell ads on the platform, in its bid to monetize the platform, retreating from a controversial plan that drove WhatsApp's creators to resign.

WhatsApp said more than two billion people use its app, and more than 40 million people view a business catalog on the platform each month.

Facebook, similar to other online platforms, has been working to make inroads with businesses crippled by the coronavirus through its e-commerce offerings, including a click-for-delivery feature for restaurants and gift-card options. The company has moved slowly on commerce in the past. After letting a group of major brands experiment with in-app purchases on Instagram more than a year ago, Facebook still hasn't made those features available to businesses platform-wide.

On its main platform and Instagram, the company runs Facebook Shops, which functions similarly to existing online marketplaces such as Etsy Inc. The tool will eventually be customized according to user data such as gender, demographics and interests, allowing businesses to piggyback on some of the data the social-media giant collects.

Facebook doesn't break out financial figures for WhatsApp. The company is due to release its second-quarter results July 29.

Write to Dave Sebastian at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 09, 2020 09:04 ET (13:04 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.