WhatsApp wants to be the successor to the Yellow Pages, to find stores and professionals

Although for most users WhatsApp is “simply” the most used instant messaging application in Europe, Meta would like it to be much more.

[Con lo nuevo de WhatsApp no volverás a perderte los estados de usuarios con los que chateas]

WhatsApp’s ambitions to get into e-commerce are no secret, taking advantage of the fact that there are already many businesses and professionals using the app to directly contact their customers. Now you have taken the next step.

WhatsApp to buy and find professionals

The new feature presented today is a “Directory” of companies and professionals, which will be available to users who need services or who buy something; The priority, at least for now, is Promote small businesses in our neighborhood

before large surfaces, which already have other methods of contact.

The idea is logical and can be very useful. It reminds us a lot of the Yellow Pages, in that it’s a list of contacts broken down by interests, such as “shopping”, “restaurants” or “arts and entertainment”. We have a search box that we can use to type in exactly what we’re looking for or browse the directory directly.

The new business directory on WhatsApp

Many small businesses use WhatsApp as a quick contact method because it’s something pretty much everyone has (at least in Europe), and it allows you to start a conversation quickly and easily. But starting that conversation is just the beginning, and WhatsApp has been working on the ability to make payments through the app

although so far it has only been able to implement them in India, one of its major markets.

To this directory we need to add another feature, called “enterprise search”, which is similar but somewhat different. It will also allow us to find stores and professionals in a directory, but the difference is that we will not be able to contact them directly through WhatsApp; instead of, we will be shown the phone number

, which we can add to our contacts to call directly. In this way, WhatsApp intends to attract businesses that don’t want to make the jump to offering support through the app, but at the same time don’t want to lose the potential customers it attracts.

These functions will arrive first in certain countries, such as Mexico, Brazil and the United Kingdom, and its launch in Europe is not yet confirmed; however, that shouldn’t take long as Mark Zuckerberg himself announced the feature, demonstrating WhatsApp’s commitment to commerce as a revenue stream.