I'm also surprised that they haven't focused more on giving businesses tools to communicate and sell to customers better through WhatsApp and Instagram. Whatsapp is the de-facto communication tool in India and LatAm from experience. Instagram is the de-facto discovery and social tool in India.
Yet from a business' perspective, the experience is really poor. Most have to rely on third party tools to sell and chat with customers.
They did seem to make a push for more business API and more marketing messaging permissions. I invested some time in developing it for political campaigns.
Only for them to yank the more open permissions away.
Meta thinks about foreign market share constantly, it’s a primary reason why they purchased WhatsApp in the first place.
The failure to capitalize on their userbase with accessory businesses probably has more to do with the VC/Silicon Valley obsession with the hot new thing and what they hope will be the next new hot thing. Commerce is boring, TikTok and VR platforms are much more exciting.
Yet from a business' perspective, the experience is really poor. Most have to rely on third party tools to sell and chat with customers.