Recently, Facebook has been subject to a lot of flak for introducing the new ‘story’ feature on its messenger service. Critics believed Facebook is overdoing the feature and that it is almost becoming mundane to see the ‘story’ updates. Nonchalant as it has always been, Facebook in its attempt to savage the situation has announced that it will soon roll out a new free version of Facebook Workplace. The announcement comes in the wake of its effort to boost the tool.
Although, the Facebook Workplace is not new to the users; it has been around since October 2016, however what is new is the new freemium version and it has already got the tech geeks excited. So let’s see what it holds in store for us.
But first, if you haven’t heard about the feature at all, let us tell you what exactly it is. Facebook Workplace is essentially a platform that is specially designed to work within a closed network. Whilst it has all the usual features including groups, Facebook live and news feed, it operates distinctly from your personal account. It encompasses only people working in your organization.
Now, it is a known fact that there are nearly more than one billion Facebook users from around the world. It only makes it the most feasible and economical choice for the organizations to use the platform for all official communication rather than implementing a new tool. Whilst, there is no official count on the number of organizations using Workplace, it would be quite safe to assume there are thousands of pad subscribers.
With the introduction of the new free version of Workplace, which is known as ‘Workplace Standard,’ all the smaller and medium sized organizations can now afford to utilize the benefits of the platform. The paid version, which will now be called ‘Workplace Premium’, will have three tiers of pricing. In the first tier, first 1000 actives users will be charged $3 per user, in the second tier, the next 9000 users will be charged $2 per user and in the last tier $1 will be charge per any additional user. It goes without saying that the free version will have limited features; the administrative and analytical tools are available only for paid users.
One of the key things about the Facebook’s announcement of the free version of Workplace is their reference to India, which they consider as one of their top markets in the world. Amidst the widespread usage of Facebook both in the personal and professional realm, a low cost version of workplace is sure to be appealing to the Indian companies. The new Facebook platform combined with the new payment options in WhatsApp can potentially open up a huge business avenue.
Research suggests that even though only 26% of India’s popular have access to internet and among the 1. Billion people who do, WhatsApp is the most used platform; there are more than 200 million users in India. The number is higher than any other country in the world. If Facebook taps in on the huge business opportunity in India, it would also open up a larger market reach for the companies in India and make Facebook a more relevant business tool. Although, one may argue that, Workplace operates on a different network, it still leaves the gates open for advertising opportunities.
