Facebook announced that it will start charging businesses for some of its WhatsApp Business chat services.WhatsApp Business enables small and medium businesses to chat with customers, provide support, and sell products directly.  WhatsApp Business charge

WhatsApp said more than 175 million people everyday message a WhatsApp Business account and over 50 million business users, so making it easy to pay directly from a chat was a no-brainer.

“Our research shows people prefer to message a business to get help and they’re more likely to make a purchase when they can do so,” the company said.

It also wants to make it easier for businesses to integrate quick payment features into their existing commerce and customer solutions, which it says will help many small businesses that have been hit by the pandemic.

The move may signal another step towards a wider rollout of WhatsApp Pay, which ran into problems in Brazil, and has met legal issues in India.

There are no exact details on exactly which services will be charged, or how much Facebook will be charging. There’s also no information on when the new changes will come into play, with the announcement appearing to act as more of a warning to WhatsApp for Business users.

“We will charge business customers for some of the services we offer, which will help WhatsApp continue building a business of our own while we provide and expand free end-to-end encrypted text, video and voice calling for more than two billion people,” the company’s blog post explained.

Facebook said it will use a portion of the revenue from commercial sales to continue providing free services to its more than two billion WhatsApp users. WhatsApp Business charge