Will Cathcart, CEO of WhatsApp, announced on social networks that the popular instant messaging application is testing in Brazil a pilot program based on a business directory with which users can find stores such as coffee shops, flower shops, clothing stores and more nearby of your location.
The idea is simple, if one day you are in a place and you want to buy a coffee, you can open WhatsApp, see the coffee shops near your location that have WhatsApp Business and be able to order your drink to take it to your home, or , you could pick it up directly at the local.
WhatsApp has been venturing into electronic commerce for several years, in fact, in Brazil it is possible to make payments or send money from WhatsApp, so it makes sense that this is the first country where its “Yellow Section” was put to the test.
During the nineties and beginning of the two thousand, the Yellow Section, was a very popular directory used to find all types of businesses and to be able to see their address and telephone number to contact the business.
“This could be the main way people and locals start trading on WhatsApp,” said Matt Idema, Facebook’s vice president of business messaging for Reuters.
On the other hand, the WhatsApp CEO announced that despite the fact that at the moment the pilot program is only being used in one city in Brazil, they hope that the next countries to test this experience will be India and Indonesia.
According to the latest company figures, WhatsApp Business is used every day by more than 175 million people around the world.