WhatsApp Business app has over 3mn users: Facebook
San Francisco, April 26 : Over 3 million people are actively using WhatsApp Business app, says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
He said this during the social media giant's Q1 2018 earnings call, the VentureBeat reported late on Wednesday.
WhatsApp Business, a standalone app separate from the other version of WhatsApp used by 1.5 billion people, was launched in January for Android users in six countries including India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Britain and the US.
WhatsApp Business competes with services like Apple's Business Chat and RCS messaging for Android and Facebook's own Messenger Platform, chat apps all built around connecting businesses with customers.
While WhatsApp Business is still being rolled out, conversational commerce through things like payments on Messenger will also be important to the social media giant, the report said.
"Over the next five years we're focused on building out the business ecosystems around our apps like Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger," Zuckerberg said.
"I think what you're going to start to see are people interacting with Pages that you follow, Pages on Facebook or Instagram.
"You see content from that Page, and you can click through to a message thread, and then you can either get customer support or complete a transaction or do a follow-on transaction, and that will be very valuable for businesses so we view the payment in that context, not as the goal but as something that's helping the business and the person succeed at having a transaction or doing what they're trying to do," Zuckerberg noted.
WhatsApp Business, available on Google Play Store, makes it easier for companies to connect with customers, and more convenient for its users to chat with businesses that matter to them.
The new app, which is yet to come on Apple App Store in India, asks for a separate phone number from the one users have for their individual WhatsApp account.
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Supreme Court takes suo motu notice of news over dog bite leading to rabies
New Delhi(PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of a media report of dog bite incident leading to rabies, saying it contained some "alarming and disturbing figures".
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan termed the news item published today in Delhi edition of English daily Times of India as "very disturbing and alarming".
The news report was about the death of a six-year-old girl, who was attacked by a rabid stray dog, in the national capital.
Taking cognisance of the news report, the bench said, "The news item contains some alarming and disturbing figures and facts."
It said every day, hundreds of dog bites were being reported in the city and on its outskirts, leading to rabies and ultimately, children and aged were falling prey to the dreadful disease.
"We take suo motu cognisance of this news item," the bench ordered.
It asked the apex court registry to register it as a suo motu petition in public interest.
"Let this order be placed along with the news report before the Chief Justice of India for appropriate orders," the bench said.
On July 15, while hearing a separate plea alleging harassment over feeding of community dogs in Noida, the apex court had asked the petitioner, "Why don't you feed them in your own house?"
The top court told the petitioner's counsel, "We should leave every lane, every road open for these large hearted people? There is all space for these animals, no space for humans. Why don't you feed them in your own house? Nobody is stopping you."
The observations came in a plea arising out of a March 2025 order of the Allahabad High Court.
The petitioner claimed harassment and said she was unable to feed community dogs in line with the Animal Birth Control Rules.
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