Page 281 - The Digital Financial Services (DFS) Ecosystem

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Ecosystem

Figure 18 – Chat platofrm and social network size

I.4.2 Chat as a platform

Chat is no longer just a feature that allows individuals to communicate. Chat is becoming a platform that allows
businesses to provide sales, customer service, news, entertainment, or other services to new and potential
customers. For example, WeChat users can "hail a taxi, order food delivery, buy movie tickets, play casual
games, check in for a flight, send money to friends, access fitness tracker data, book a doctor appointment,
get banking statements, pay the water bill, find geo-targeted coupons, recognize music, search for a book at
the local library, meet strangers around them, follow celebrity news, read magazine articles, and even donate
to charity … all in a single, integrated app."
19
Businesses are using chat platforms in several different ways:

• Conversational style – Human agents (‘live chat’), software (‘chatbot’), and hybrid approaches.
• Web style – Traditional websites or platform-tailored applications deliver the user experience.

19 Chan, Connie. When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China. Andreessen Horowitz blog. August 6,
2015. http:// a16z. com/ 2015/ 08/ 06/ wechat- china- mobile- first/ (accessed May 2016).

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