On November 30, Facebook announced its acquisition of Kustomer, a customer service platform and chatbot startup, in an effort to encourage companies to use its platforms to conduct business. Though the terms of the deal were not disclosed, sources close to the deal confirmed that it was for US$1 billion.
Kustomer, whose technology aggregates conversations from different social media platforms onto one screen, already has a relationship with Facebook, allowing companies to consolidate and respond to customer inquiries that are sent through Facebook Messenger. In October, Kustomer also began offering this service for Facebook’s Instagram messaging.
With an increasing segment of Facebook’s customers communicating with companies through messaging instead of calling, this acquisition appears to be a logical next step for Facebook. Currently, more than 175 million Facebook customers reach out to businesses every day using its WhatsApp messaging service. Coupling this customer engagement with Facebook’s latest venture, Shops, which lets businesses create online stores through Facebook and Instagram, acquiring Kustomer enables Facebook to implement effective customer service solutions for businesses across its multitude of platforms.
Smartphones have become integral to daily life, raising increasing apprehensions about their impact on attention, productivity and overall digital habits. As reliance on smartphones has grown, so has…
Developer Rockstar Games and publisher Take-Two Interactive recently opened pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto VI (“GTA 6”), marking the first franchise instalment in thirteen years. Since the launch of…
A new iOS app called Sniff is taking a different approach to social networking by connecting dog owners within the same neighbourhood. Rather than encouraging users to build broad online communities…
The fully autonomous ridesharing service, Waymo, is looking to add a new ridesharing option for Torontonians with self-driving vehicles. Waymo is a driverless taxi service where users can hail an…
Four years after Canada shut Huawei out of its 5G networks, one of its former subsidiaries is hoping for a second chance in the Canadian market. Honor Device Co., a Chinese consumer electronics…
Quantum computers have long been promised to reshape the leading edge of computing technology, facilitating machines capable of completing operations unthinkably time-intensive for classical computers…
