WhatsApp Business Development Becomes Meta Indonesia's Focus in 2023

After doing change of name last October 2021, Facebook, which is now known as Meta, has a number of business focuses that will be intensified in 2023, including for its unit in Indonesia.

Meta's three focuses for Indonesia are helping businesses through digital technology, supporting digital acceleration through a series of partnerships and programs, and driving trends/inspiration for creators and communities who use its platform.

WhatsApp for Business

Meta looks at 2023 business activity in the realm online will be more closely related to the use of the service business messaging, especially through the WhatsApp service which is so popular in Indonesia. A study launched by Kantar in 2022 shows that 7 out of 10 people in Indonesia prefer to use services business messaging to connect with partners and customers, rather than by phone or email.

Moreover, Meta has also launched the Communities feature on WhatsApp which allows people to connect with various kinds of communities. This feature has just been launched, and will gradually be available in all WhatsApp applications for users in Indonesia.

Currently, more than 1 billion users are connected to business accounts every week. On business messaging, conversations in 1:1 format form meaningful interactions with customers. Post-pandemic, almost half of Indonesian consumers chat more often with business accounts. 40% of respondents increase their use of business messaging.

Meanwhile, business communication through messaging is now part of consumer behavior. 1 in 2 Indonesian consumers use business messaging once every 3 weeks. This feature is also used by all age categories, especially millennials, bro, Gen Z.

Previously WhatsApp has also pointed Calvin Kizana as Head of WhatsApp Indonesia. Asked about Meta's plans for WhatsApp in the future, Industry Head Meta Indonesia, Aldo Rambie, revealed that WhatsApp itself has a comprehensive ecosystem, starting from consumer apps to business platforms.

"The context is still building one-on-one conversations namely providing features that make it easy conversation antara person-to-person. For small business can make it easier for them to use WhatsApp. With the aim that businesses can reach customers on a larger scale. Next year we will explain in more detail."

According to a report released by Business of Apps, Indonesia is the third largest country in the world for the number of WhatsApp users in the world, after India and Brazil. It is estimated that in 2021 there will be 112 million WhatsApp users in Indonesia, or almost half of the population.

Development of the metaverse in Indonesia

Alluded to is how the development of the metaverse in Indonesia has been developed by Meta using virtual reality headset, according to Head of Public Policy for Meta Indonesia Noudhy Valdryno, metaverse developments are carried out periodically. So it does not mean that it is directly implemented in all countries.

"So what we are doing in Indonesia right now is building the ecosystem first. Of course this metaverse is not just AR/VR technology, but there are also many things that we have to build. For example ecosystems but also infrastructure to talent."

He added that he personally hopes that one day Indonesia can get access to the Metaverse technology developed by Meta. However, currently Meta Indonesia's focus is on preparing its ecosystem first. It is hoped that Indonesia can become one of the key countries in the metaverse era.

On this occasion, a study conducted by Instagram and Populix also discussed the release of the report "What Gen Z Indonesia loves on Instagram" for the first time. This report shows that Gen-Z is not only a group that enjoys entertainment content, but they also tend to want to be more connected with people in their circle of friends.

One of the interesting findings in Indonesia is how the Gen-Z group on Instagram made the trending hashtags #PesonaIndonesia and #Kuliner the top hashtags in 2022 with 37% and 40% of Gen-Z using these two hashtags respectively. #PesonaIndonesia and #culinary will continue to be a trend in 2023.

Also revealed in the report are the trends that Gen-Z have been waiting for on Instagram. Among them is the implementation of metaverse and web3 elements, such as avatars, AR and VR, to NFT. It is recorded that around 65% of Gen-Z in Indonesia want to see more VR features on Instagram.

In September this year, Meta launched the Virtual Learning Academy, a training program for Spark AR creators across Indonesia from various backgrounds and levels that aims to provide them with basic to advanced skills, to create engaging Augmented Reality (AR) experiences. and have an economic impact.

"The Virtual Learning Academy is our effort to support young people in Indonesia who are interested in learning Spark AR and become future creators as the backbone of the future metaverse and technological evolution in general," said Noudhy.