New Delhi: Facebook has announced that it will be building a 'modern-day Yellow Pages' into Whatsapp through which will be able to look up contacts of local businesses in the app itself.
The new feature will launch in São Paulo, Brazil today and then at more locations.
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According to Reuters, WhatsApp said the new test would include thousands of businesses in categories like food, retail and local services across certain São Paulo neighborhoods. Matt Idema, Facebook's vice president of business messaging, said India and Indonesia were good next candidates to expand the feature.
Yellow Pages was a staple of everyday life, helping people look up the contact details of whoever was registered into it but with the internet gaining momentum people became less dependent on the thick book to search for business or people.
When looking for information about local businesses, people tend to use Google or similar platforms.
WhatsApp, unlike Facebook and Instagram, does not run ads in its app. However, Idema did not rule out the possibility that WhatsApp could introduce in-app ads in the future.
"There's definitely a route on ads, which is Facebook's core business model, that over the long term I think in some form or another will be part of the business model for WhatsApp," he said.
Whatsapp told Reuters that about one million advertisers currently use Facebook and Instagram's 'click to WhatsApp' ads to send users to the messaging app directly. This essentially intended to push people to enquire.