Facebook Messenger News & Updates: Messenger Chatbots Reach 33,000; Twitter Debuts Own E-Commerce Platform

Facebook has opened an e-commerce Messenger service in April, and it has accumulated more than 33,000 chatbots. Meanwhile, Twitter is set to catch up to Messenger with the debut of its own chatbots platform last week.

 It was in 2015 that Facebook aspired an artificial intelligence-based specification for Messenger to enable it to perform automatic functionalities including online shopping. The Messenger bots were unveiled six months ago and through these bots, as per Tech, the messaging app can now handle payments.

"Now that Messenger has scaled, we're starting to develop ecosystems around it and the first thing we're doing is exploring how you can all communicate with businesses," said Marck Zuckerberg during the launching of Messenger Bots.

Further explaining the rationale of Messenger bots, Zuckerberg said, "No one wants to install a new app for every service or business that they want to interact with. So we think that there's got to be a better way to do this. We think that you should just be able to message a business the same way you'd message a friend."

After six months since its debut, Messenger chatbots are growing by thousands. As per the Wall Street Journal, more companies are rallying to gain Messenger chatbots. Likewise, banking companies such as MasterCard and Paypal among others have already established their own bots.

Twitter, on the other hand, has recently launched its own chatbot platforms to catch up in the race. Ian Cairns, Customer Service Product Manager of Twitter, announced just on November 1 that Twitter will have two new features and that would include a platform to mediate conversational experiences between businesses and people on Twitter through Welcome Messages and Quick Replies inside Direct Messages.

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Twitter is also currently working closely with Assist, Audiense, Conversable, and Conversocial among others to bring these features to tech market soon.

"The features that Twitter has built into Direct Messages will help people get better experiences with businesses on the platform. At Assist, we're excited to use Twitter's new features to build innovative solutions that bring faster service and solutions for brands on Twitter," divulged Co-Founder and CEO at Assist, Shane Mac.

The competition over top specification between Facebook and Twitter is real. As such, investment and exploration of bots and AI are detrimental in staying at the top of the ladder. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!