During an analyst call on October 26, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, reported a year-over-year doubling of revenue from Click-to-Message ads in India, as revealed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Earlier this year, Zuckerberg had said that Click-to-Message ads had reached a $10 billion revenue run-rate globally.
Zuckerberg additionally shared that over 60 percent of WhatsApp users in India engage with a business app account on a weekly basis.
On October 26 earnings call, Zuckerberg also said he believes business messaging will be the next major pillar for the company’s business with more than 600 million conversations happening between people and businesses every day on their platforms.
In the last year, Meta has actively worked to monetize WhatsApp, focusing on expanding its business-oriented features and India has emerged as a pivotal market in Meta’s strategy to drive growth in this direction.
At their global Convesation event in Mumbai, Zuckerberg announced a range of business messaging-centric product features that included in-chat payments and the capability for businesses to craft personalised experiences for customers using WhatsApp Flows.
“India is leading the world in terms of how people and businesses embrace messaging” Zuckerberg, had said at the time of unveiling the features.
In June, Meta also allowed users of its WhatsApp Business app to create Click-to-WhatsApp ads for Facebook and Instagram without needing a Facebook account.
New launches from Meta however were not restricted to business features.Last month, Meta also unveiled an AI Studio that enables people to create and interact with lots of different AI characters across its platforms. The feature also allows businesses to create AI characters that reflect their brand’s values and improve customer service experiences across their apps.
During the call, Meta CFO Susan Li reported robust revenue growth from business messaging in the quarter. This surge played a pivotal role in the expansion of the “Family of Apps other revenue” segment, encompassing the company’s non-advertising revenue sources across its suite of apps.
The Q3 figures for Family of Apps other revenue stood at $293 million, reflecting a 53 percent YoY increase. Meta’s overall revenue for the quarter reached $34.1 billion, marking a 23 percent YoY rise, with net income clocking a 164 percent surge, totaling $11.6 billion for the quarter.