Page 255 - The Digital Financial Services (DFS) Ecosystem

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Ecosystem

Vending machine Ordering a taxi

WeChat is the prime example. WeChat users with a linked payment method can purchase from stores,
vending machines, and mobile merchants using proximity technologies, such as bar codes, as well as remote
technologies, such as phone apps.

2.2.3 Conversational commerce via chat

Users can buy products and services through social network chat applications. To make a purchase, users
typically add the merchant as a chat contact and complete the transaction through a chat conversation.
Some implementations involve human agents responding to user requests. Other implementations rely on
software chatbots mimicking a human agent or providing menu-like functionality (see the example below).
3
Facebook began piloting the chatbot approach in April 2016. See the appendix for additional details on using
chat applications for commercial purposes.

Figure 3 – Chatbot screenshot example

3 A chatbot is a software application designed to simulate conversation with human users.

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