Page 280 - The Digital Financial Services (DFS) Ecosystem

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Ecosystem

I.4.1 Chat as a feature

Chat applications facilitate real-time and asynchronous communication between two users or a small group
of users – a much different method than more public communications like Tweets and Facebook posts. Chat
users may send text, photos, voice recordings, videos, animations, and other forms of media. Chat applications
often include a VoIP service or vice versa.

Figure 17 – Nature of chat services

Some companies began as chat or VoIP providers and have retained most of that focus so far (e.g., WhatsApp).
Others have expanded significantly beyond initial chat/VoIP services (e.g., WeChat). More traditional social
networks, such as Facebook, are placing more emphasis on chat (e.g., Facebook Messenger). These chat/VoIP-
heritage companies and Facebook Messenger have become very popular with monthly active users rivalling
those of traditional social networks.

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