Facebook has launched Workplace, a business messaging service created for professional to enable them communicate from anywhere in an easy way.
Facebook tested the service on more than 1,000 organizations in the US, UK and India before announcing the formal launch of the service.
“The workplace is about more than just communicating between desks within the walls of an office. Some people spend their entire workday on the go, on their mobile phone. Others spend all day out in the field, or on the road.” Facebook said in a press release.
Facebook Workplace is similar to services like Slack and Yammer. It was earlier called “Facebook At Work”. The new messaging service is a separate version which allows users to share messages, videos, picture, and comments, as well as do group chats and video calls. It also includes live video and news feed feature of Facebook. It also allows users to like other people’s posts. Users can enable security functions on it as well as a dashboard with analytic. The background is gray, not blue. Users need to build their profiles Workplace and then they are able to see updates from co-workers on their news feed. Posts more relevant to users (based on Facebook’s own formula) will be displayed. The tool is based on an internal service that Facebook’s own employees have been using for the past so many years.
“We have more than nearly 6,000 people talking on a daily basis about everything from tech decisions to wellness initiatives,” said executive general manager of corporate affairs, Karina Keisler.
“Meetings are fewer, conversation are more. Leaders are doing live video updates and generating open conversations for all to see and uniting the teams around their respective goals.”
Facebook Workplace creates a virtual space for companies where employees can communicate with each other. Booking.com, Danone, the Royal Bank of Scotland, soup maker Campbell’s and Starbucks have already started using Workplace as their new internal messaging service. According to the social networking giant, the top five countries using Workplace are India, Norway, the US, Britain, and France.
Facebook has also introduced the Workplace Partner Program for resellers to promote its new product, and encourage companies to purchase the service.
“Organizations are stronger and more productive when everyone comes together.” Facebook said.
Facebook Workplace will be an ad-free platform, and companies will need to sign up as an organization and pay a monthly fee based on the number of users to use this platform. Nonprofits and educational institutions can use the service for free. In comparison, Slack costs $6.67 per user per month for a standard version, and is also available for free to try out.
For one to 1,000 active users, Workplace will cost $3 per user per month. For 1,001 to 10,000 users, the cost will decline to $2 per user per month, and $1 for more than 10,000 monthly users. Organizations won’t need to pay anything for inactive users.
About Facebook
Facebook, headquartered in Menlo Park, California, U.S., is the largest social networking website in the world. The Facebook website was launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes, and Dustin Moskovitz. Initially, the websites membership was limited to Harvard students, but it was later expanded to include higher education institutions in the Boston area, the Ivy League schools, and Stanford University. Since 2006, anyone aged 13 or above can register on the website.
By late 2007, there were 100,000 business pages on Facebook. These pages were created by companies to promote themselves and attract customers. On October 24, 2007, Microsoft revealed to have purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million. Once year later, Facebook announced its plan to set up its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.
In July 2010, the company announced to have touched the milestone of 500 million users, making it the world’s largest online social network at the time. At that time, almost half of the Facebook users were using the site daily, for an average of 34 minutes (according to the company’s data).
According to SecondMarket Inc., Facebook’s value in November 2010 was $41 billion, making it the third largest American web company after Google and Amazon.
The initial public offering of Facebook was held in February 2012. Three months later, the company started selling stock to the public, and reached an original peak market capitalization of $104 billion. As of March 31, 2016, the social network had over 1.65 billion monthly active users, and it is now also the world’s most popular social networking site based on the number of active user accounts.
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