WhatsApp is launching a new business directory function in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Mexico, and Colombia.
According to Meta, customers can browse by business category (such as travel or banking) or search directly to identify contactable organizations through the service.
All businesses that have signed up for WhatsApp’s Business Platform in all five countries will be listed in the directory. In addition, in Brazil, small companies will also be able to use the directory.
Following a brief test done by WhatsApp in Sao Paulo, Brazil, last year, the feature has been officially launched. In Brazil, the feature is only available on Android. However, it is available on both Android and iOS in other countries.
“While millions of businesses in Brazil use [WhatsApp] for chat, we haven’t made it easy to discover businesses or buy from them, so people end up having to use work-arounds. The ultimate goal here is to make it so you can find, message and buy from a business all in the same WhatsApp chat,” said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement.
Ariel Ben Solomon is the Growth and Strategy manager at Ecomhunt. He is the host of the Ecomhunt Podcast. Can be followed on Twitter at @ArielBenSolomon
