Facebook Opens Its “Workplace” Platform to All Businesses: A Contender to Slack and Salesforce

After a vigorous testing phase spanning 18 months, Facebook has now rolled out its business-focused application formerly known as “Facebook At Work”. Initially tested on organizations such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, the newly rebranded “Facebook Workplace” seeks to bring streamlined communication and functionality to businesses worldwide.

Currently, there are approximately 1,000 businesses that have adopted Facebook Workplace into their daily operations. Through a [blog post](http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/10/introducing-workplace-by-facebook/), Facebook explained that Workplace incorporates its quintessential features — from its News Feed infrastructure to the ability to create and share content in groups or via chat, along with tools such as Live, Reactions, Search, and Trending posts.

Workplace’s dedicated News Feed can bring employees closer, allowing team members to go Live to brief colleagues around the world about important announcements. This tool also provides a platform for brainstorming sessions and presentations, fostering collaboration and connectivity among remote employees.

Big-name brands like Starbucks and Booking.com have already warmed up to Workplace, and Facebook is looking to extend its reach. Aiming to compete directly with major platforms like Slack and Salesforce; the social media giant has inaugurated its Workplace Partner Program. This program provides consulting firms such as Deloitte, Akintola Williams, and Philips consulting in Nigeria with the necessary tools to set up their clients on Facebook Workplace.

The platform features over 100,000 groups, with more predicted to sprout in the future. A noteworthy inclusion is the multi-company group feature, which allows different organizations to interact via Facebook Workplace. However, this feature is currently pending and will be available at a later date.

When it comes to pricing, Facebook Workplace offers a three-month trial period. Following this, prices are based on monthly active users (MAU). The cost starts at $3 per employee for the first 1,000 users, which then lowers to $2 for up to 10,000 users. For organizations with over 10,000 employees, the fee stands at a minimal $1 per user. These fees are nearly competitive with Slack’s pricing and significantly lower than Salesforce Chatter’s and Microsoft’s Yammer’s monthly fees.

With its new pricing model, Facebook is banking on a substantial number of companies adopting Workplace, thus broadening its revenue base, which has primarily been reliant on advertising. In the second quarter of this year alone, advertising accounted for 84 percent of Facebook’s total revenue.

Over recent years, Facebook has been steadily venturing into the realm of enterprise solutions. Earlier this year, the social media behemoth opened its chatbot service to developers and businesses, aiming at facilitating better customer interactions, as bots are predicted to phase out apps in the near future.

Facebook’s Workplace undoubtedly marks an exciting period of growth and diversification for the company. As the platform continues to evolve and incorporate further enhancements, it has the potential to reshape the landscape of business communication and collaboration.