Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. HOMEPAGE

Apple courts B2C communications

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence Apps and Platforms Briefing subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here.

Apple is preparing to introduce Business Chat, a way for organizations to communicate with customers over iMessage, the native messaging app for iOS.

Business Chat will be deeply integrated into Apple’s OS and native apps, and will let users look up businesses over Safari, Maps, Spotlight, and Siri, and contact them via iMessage.

Reasons Customers like Chat
BI Intelligence

It will also support Apple Pay for transactions and Calendar. The new feature comes as Apple continues to add services to iMessage, likely to shore up against the growing threat of rival chat platforms.

Business Chat is indicative of how the wide adoption of chat apps is impacting the way people communicate, not only with each other, but with businesses, too. The feature is similar to those offered by social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, as well as chat apps, like WhatsApp, Messenger, and Skype, which give consumers an easy way to reach businesses with information requests or complaints.   

One of the reasons chat apps are emerging as a preferred line of communication between businesses and customers is that they offer a range of benefits compared with other B2C communication channels. According to an Ovum study of millennials in the US and Germany, some of the most popular reasons consumers prefer to talk to businesses via chat apps are: 

  • A faster resolution to problems. Over half of respondents believe that contacting businesses over chat apps will result in resolving problems more quickly. Ninety percent of SMS messages are opened within three minutes of being received, according to OpenMarket.
  • Greater convenience. Texting is among the most used feature of smartphones, according to Fluent. That means they’re already accustomed to, and actively using, the service. Reaching consumers over this channel removes the need for consumers to open multiple apps or new communication channels.
  • Providing a record of prior communication. Chat apps and SMS apps are built around a threaded conversation. This means that consumers and businesses have a running record of past interactions and shared information, saving time and frustration for both sides. 

Messaging apps have evolved beyond simple text communication tools to include commerce, file sharing, artificial intelligence, and more. And that evolution is ongoing. Although further details are pending, it’s possible that Apple could use Business Chat as a launching point for implementing even automated services geared toward B2C, such as chatbots, auto-replies, and welcome messages.

The top four messaging apps — Facebook's Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, and Viber — now claim nearly 3 billion monthly active users combined, narrowly outnumbering the combined active users on the world's four largest social networks, including Facebook.

These numbers have caught the attention of a wide range of businesses, publishers among them. News industry leaders including the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and the BBC are establishing a presence on a number of chat apps in an effort to be out front and build an audience on the latest platforms where people are consuming content. These early adopters are experimenting to learn which chat apps work for their audience and how they can leverage chat for the distribution of digital content, including articles, images, surveys, and video. 

BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on messaging apps for publishers that looks at the appeal of these apps and how they're becoming a dominant platform for media consumption. It compares the leading chat platforms, including WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook's Messenger, and Viber, and what features publishers should know about when thinking about how they might leverage these properties. It also looks at strategies for content distribution across chat apps and finally spotlights some of the challenges that publishers may encounter as they begin to dip their toes into content distribution via messaging apps.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

  • There are dozens of messaging platforms, each with distinct user demographics and features, and these differences will determine which apps a publisher should try and what type of content is most fitting. 
  • Publishers like The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and the BBC are experimenting to learn which chat apps work for their audience and how they can leverage chat for the distribution of digital content, including articles, images, surveys, and video.
  • Chat apps are especially appealing to publishers because they allow these brands to tap into users' "dark social" activity. Dark social traffic stems from people sharing content privately through IM programs, messaging apps, and email, among other means.
  • Because chat apps were once primarily used for peer-to-peer communications, publishers have an opportunity to reach audiences on these platforms through a more conversational exchange. 

In full, the report:

  • Breaks down the pros and cons of each major messaging app.
  • Explains the different ways publishers can distribute content on messaging apps.
  • Highlights the differences between native and linked content.
  • Looks at the potential barriers that could limit chat apps' utility for publishers.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

  1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
  2. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT
Apps and Platforms Mobile
Advertisement
Close icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.

Jump to

  1. Main content
  2. Search
  3. Account