Facebook bets on Messenger Platform as a tool for e-commerce

San Francisco: Facebook is turning its Messenger application into a platform for e-commerce, video and more in a bid to shake up online communication. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Messenger Platform, describing it as a way for software developers to boost appeal to the more than 600 million people using the application.

“We think this service has the potential to allow people to express themselves in new ways ... and to be an important communication tool for the world,” Zuckerberg said at the California-based company’s annual developers conference that ends Thursday in San Francisco. Facebook executives introduced more than 25 products and tools tailored to help developers “build, grow, and monetise” mobile applications aimed at the social network’s audience of approximately 1.39 billion people.