WhatsApp tests a “Yellow Pages” style business contacts service

In Sao Paulo, Brazil, WhatsApp is testing a service to highlight i business contacts useful to users, in style “Yellow Pages“. The pilot program sees the various activities divided by categories such as “food shops” and “restaurants” and allows for contact them directly.

The Yellow Pages of WhatsApp, a business contact service

Although WhatsApp started by focusing on the one-to-one relationship between users, it is evolving into a platform with great potential for small businesses and businesses. E-commerce in particular is becoming central to the platform, which announced last October that 175 million people they contact a business account every day.

This is because over the years it has added services such as the shopping cart, i in-app payments in some countries (Brazil and India) so that users can directly purchase from their reseller via WhatsApp. But the search for activities usually took place outside of WA, perhaps on the Facebook or Instagram page of the shopkeeper, or on Google. This yellow pages-style service should change the mechanics.

Will Cathcart, Head of WhatsApp Services, has explained that the company is not currently recording the location of users or what activities they are looking for. But the feature may be implemented in the future. One of the big issues for WhatsApp’s e-commerce push is the recent change of Policy proposed this spring. The main change for privacy concerns the possibility of recording some data during interactions with companies. Then sell useful services to those companies to contact their customers.

The WhatsApp “Yellow Pages” register is one of the most interesting news that the company is testing for commercial activities. But it seems like he wants to take his time implement shared privacy policies, especially after the protests of the last year. We will keep you updated on the results of this first test: if it is successful, it should also arrive in Indonesia and India. And who knows, one day even in Italy, if everything goes smoothly.