In fact, there is no coding required at all. With tools like Chatfuel you can build and deploy a bot in just 7 minutes-and you don’t have to be an experienced developer, either. "It’s important not to over-commercialize the chat and messaging space, because for users, that’s their personal space where they talk to their friends.Considering the power of Facebook chatbots, you’ll probably be surprised to hear that they can be built by anyone. “We want Poncho to be the bot you’re friends with," he says. Currently on its app, various weather products from General Electric will get a mention in Poncho’s forecast, depending on what the weather is.īut Poncho wants to tread carefully with with sponsored content on Messenger, says the startup’s chief executive, Sam Mandel. Poncho’s creators are exploring ways they might eventually slip sponsored content into chats it has with people on Messenger. (Currently the people reading its app and email newsletter number in the millions, according to Betaworks). New dialogue for the bot is re-written each day by a team of about eight writers at Betaworks.Įach day they hold an editorial meeting to discuss forthcoming dialogue for the bot, and try to get in latest entertainment news or pop culture references to keep Poncho interesting and relevant to its users. Poncho, a bot that’s only available for Facebook users in the U.S., sends a message about the weather forecast twice a day using sassy commentary. Eventually they could be writing sponsored content from advertisers for the bot on Messenger, too. The editorial team at Poncho writes in news and pop culture references for the weather service each. Betaworks, a startup studio in New York, is the company behind a bot that was launched on Tuesday on with Facebook’s Messenger Platform, called Poncho. That leaves open the possibility that businesses may try to get around paying to Facebook, by arguing that the content of their messages is more useful than promotional.ĭevelopers who building bots for Messenger are also looking ahead to how they can make money with sponsored marketing messages. Once those messages start becoming more promotional, like Feller’s hotel example, Facebook will also start charging, he says. It’s not the focus on what we’re building now, but in principle we can imagine something going forward.” “That’s clearly nothing to do with the ticket you just purchased. “Say you’re getting a flight booking confirmation from an airline, and the airline wants to also make you an offer for a hotel where you can stay in that city,” says Feller. “That’s not a legitimate use case,” he says.įor the time being, Facebook wants bots to be functional, not promotional. “We don’t limit how many messages businesses can send but we monitor the platform,” he adds.įacebook has built its own monitoring software, what Feller refers to as system-integrity tools, that help it keep track of whether a small company like a hair salon is sending out millions of messages. The $99 price tag acts as a partial deterrent from businesses wildly spamming people with their new bots.Īnd what they say in that message is also subject to scrutiny from Facebook.īots aren’t allowed to message people with promotions or sponsored messages at all, says Frerk-Malte Feller, who runs Messenger for Business at Facebook, though they may be allowed to do that further down the line. It's free for businesses to set up a bot, but it’ll cost money to initiate a chat. The salon then pays Facebook $99 saying something to that person on Messenger. A customer at a hair salon might, for instance, leaves their mobile number on file while making a booking. If they already have a person’s mobile number on file, they can pay Facebook a $99 “customer matching fee” to unlock the ability to instigate a conversation on Messenger too. But Facebook has offered a workaround for companies who really want to reach people through Messenger. Typically, a Messenger bot from someone like e-commerce firm Spring wouldn’t be able to talk to a user out of the blue, unless they'd messaged it first. Some define the company's Messenger profile itself is a bot. They’ll use a mixture of human agents when an issue is complex, and automated bots for simple tasks. With the artificial intelligence technology imbued in Facebook’s Bot Engine, developers can build them to hold simple conversations with people, show photos and take orders. Bots are very lightweight versions of apps or websites, that allow businesses to have a presence on Messenger for the first time.
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