Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

In April 2016, something happened at Facebook that would quickly result in a revolutionary paradigm shift on the horizon of online communication -- from mobile to desktop, marketing to services, personal to corporate -- everything, really.

 

Messenger opened its doors to developers with an invitation to create chatbots -- something of which roughly 78% of online adults were unaware. Within six months, developers had created about 30,000 active Messenger bots. Today, less than a year later, that number is up 233%, with 100,000 active bots on the platform. 

 

But it’s not just a popular, funky thing to do. Businesses using chatbots are seeing results, like Sephora, which reportedly earns “an average spend of over $50 from clients who have booked an in-store service via its Messenger assistant,” according to VentureBeat....