Facebook, Messenger, Instagram Infrastructure Integration
[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] Facebook is launching an application that integrates Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and more to support small and medium-sized businesses.
On the 18th, according to IT media The Verge and others, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg announced on her blog, "We are launching a new app that allows small business owners to manage their pages and profiles across Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram."
Called 'Facebook Business Suite,' this app integrates the infrastructure of Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram, enabling small business owners to receive messages and notifications from customers in a unified inbox. Facebook plans to add WhatsApp to the integrated app in the future.
The app will also allow small businesses to post simultaneously on Facebook and Instagram and provide information on how advertising campaigns are progressing on the platforms. Much of this cross-posting functionality is already available to managers of Instagram Business accounts linked to Facebook pages.
In the IT industry, there had been speculation that Instagram and Facebook Messenger chats would be integrated, but this is the first official announcement of an integrated app function for small and medium-sized businesses. Facebook plans to make the new integrated app available to small businesses first and later offer it to larger companies.
Meanwhile, antitrust regulators have raised concerns about Facebook's messaging app integration plans. Earlier, the European Parliament warned that the messaging integration plans of major social networking service (SNS) companies pose a potential threat to fair competition.
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