UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.- People always tell us they want an easy way to not only find businesses, but also contact them via WhatsApp for quick help without having to look up phone numbers, email support@ addresses or navigate complex websites. And while many businesses already promote their own WhatsApp number on packaging materials, store signs and websites, we’re often asked for better ways to help more people learn about the channel.

For this reason, we launched the possibility of finding businesses directly on WhatsApp, so that people can search for companies by category -such as travel or bank- or search by business name. This will save the user from having to look up the phone number on the company’s website or enter the number in their contacts. For now, for starters, we’re bringing this feature to Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Colombia, and the UK. In Brazil, users can also browse the small business category in their neighborhood.

Once someone has found a business they want to chat with, they can ask questions about products, browse their catalog of goods and services, and add items to carts to let businesses know what they want to buy. From there, we want users to be able to make secure payments right from the chat with their credit or debit card. We recently launched this experience in India and are excited to start testing it now in Brazil with various payment partners. This easy checkout experience will be a game changer for individuals and businesses looking to buy and sell on WhatsApp without having to open a website, open another app, or pay directly. We aim to expand this experience to more countries in the future.

COMMENT FROM MARK ZUCKERBERG

It’s been a pleasure to join you remotely for the first WhatsApp Business Summit in Brazil.

Wherever you go in the world, people are WhatsApp fans, but that’s especially true in Brazil. The creativity there is very inspiring. This is the only country where I’ve heard of people opening bank accounts, buying cars and ordering dinner, all via WhatsApp.

We want to make it easier for people to do more on WhatsApp. Part of it is creating better ways to engage with businesses. And while millions of businesses in Brazil use it to chat, we haven’t made it easy to find businesses or buy from them, so people should end up using a solution.

Its main purpose is to allow finding businesses, sending them messages and buying from them in the same WhatsApp chat.

Well, starting today, people can search for brands or small businesses directly on WhatsApp, either by browsing the category list or typing in a name. We made this possible by extending our directory functionality throughout Brazil and also bringing it to larger companies that use our WhatsApp Business platform in Brazil as well as in several other countries.

You can easily start a chat with a business, and if you want to buy something from them, you should be able to do it there. Several partners are actively testing payments with us so we can quickly bring this capability to more people and businesses in Brazil.

If you own a business in Brazil, that means people will be able to find you, contact you, and buy from you, all in one WhatsApp chat; and we’re looking to bring this experience to more countries in the coming months. This is the next step for business messaging and I look forward to hearing about the opportunities it opens up for everyone.

BLOG POST

Find what you need, send messages, and buy what you want on WhatsApp

Today we’re announcing a preview of what we’re building to help people find what they need, message, and buy what they want from businesses on WhatsApp. Our team is in Brazil today, where we are discussing our vision of bringing the entire shopping experience directly to WhatsApp chats.

Find a company

People want millions of small businesses and tens of thousands of brands already using WhatsApp to help them quickly and easily. Today we’re giving you the ability to find businesses right on WhatsApp so you can browse businesses by category, like travel or bank, or search by name. This way, they don’t have to look up the phone number on websites or save it to their contacts.

We build enterprise search in a way that keeps people private. Everything you search for is processed in a way that can’t be linked back to your account. For starters, we now offer the ability to search for businesses in Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Colombia and the UK, where people can find businesses using our WhatsApp Business platform. In Brazil, the search will also make it possible to find small businesses.

send message

As more and more businesses use WhatsApp, our core principle remains to provide control of the conversation. This is important both for WhatsApp and for the people and companies that trust us. Some of the companies that joined WhatsApp recently are helping people open bank accounts, buy subway tickets, and shop.

buy what you want

Our goal is for payments to be made securely right from the chat with a debit or credit card. We recently launched this experience in India and are excited to test it in Brazil with various payment partners. This smooth and seamless checkout experience will be a game changer for individuals and businesses looking to buy and sell on WhatsApp, as they don’t need to open a website, open another app, or make payments directly.

This new experience is part of our initiative to make WhatsApp the best choice for its users when dealing with their favorite companies. We look forward to receiving your comments.