With more social media interaction switching to DMs, Meta’s working to develop new messaging tools for businesses, in order to help them keep up with this latest behavioral shift.
And if you’re looking to get a better understanding of your business messaging options, then this upcoming event is for you. Well, if you live in an Asian market, at least.
Next Wednesday, Meta will be running its second annual “Conversations” business messaging event, where a range of Meta experts will present their latest tools and tactics to help brands utilize its various DM tools.
The event will be live-streamed on Facebook, though it's only available to users in Asia.
As per Meta:
“Around the world, messaging is deeply ingrained in daily life, driving trends that reverberate across business and culture. Tune into this live virtual keynote as Meta leadership launches a new era of messaging-driven commerce and communication. Join Managing Director of Meta India Sandhya Devanathan, VP Business Messaging Nikila Srinivasan, our product team, and inspiring business innovators for a first look at the next generation of tools fueling experiences, performance, and growth with the full power of business messaging.”
It’s little surprise to see the lead for Meta’s Indian operations get top billing here.
WhatsApp, Meta’s biggest messaging platform, has close to 500 million users in India alone, its biggest usage region by far, which has made it a key focus for Meta’s evolving business messaging push, as it works to expand user behaviors in the market.
The hope is that by building on WhatsApp’s utility, it can make WhatsApp the WeChat of India, which is similar to Elon Musk’s “everything app” ambition for X, where a single platform becomes the key connective tool for many, many applications and processes.
Thus far, Meta hasn’t been able to make that happen, due to regulatory challenges, connectivity limits, user resistance, etc. But it is gradually expanding its WhatsApp offerings, which makes India the prime focus for many of its broader business messaging options.
But it’s also seeing traction with messaging tools in other regions as well.
Back in July, Meta reported that interest in its click-to-messaging ads is rising, with Click-to-WhatsApp ad revenue growing 80% year-over-year. It also reported late last year that North America is now WhatsApp’s fastest-growing region.
That shows that Western users are becoming more interested in enclosed, private discussions, which is another impetus for Meta to ramp up its expanded roll-out of default end-to-end encryption in all its messaging apps, as well as full messaging platform integration.
And as this happens, the trends suggest that more people will be leaning into messaging, which could present new connection opportunities for your business.
With this in mind, it could be worth tuning in to Meta’s “Conversations” event next week, which will be live-streaming in-app.
“On September 20th at 11:00AM IST, you can watch the blockbuster keynote: Welcome to the era of message-driven business. You’ll hear from Meta product leaders and innovators who will unveil and demo a new generation of messaging tools and technologies designed to empower businesses to create new experiences, drive new performance, and fuel faster growth.”
It could be worth tuning in, if you can. Or, you could just wait for my summary shortly after, as I’ll be monitoring all the key updates.
