Facebook Acquires Customer Services Startup Kustomer For Undisclosed Fee

Kustomer, the startup that offers customer-services as a service via chatbots, has been acquired by the world’s largest social media platform. Facebook said that the Kustomer serves as a social platform tool to enhance its social commerce services.

Over time, Facebook has acquired several companies with the intent to spread its influence even further in the world. However, the customer service platform is more efficient as a tool because of its specialty of service.

The customer service platform uses its personalized chatbot or uses technology to synchronize with diverse channels, sourcing conversation to display on a single screen, which they call the ‘continuous omnichannel conversation.’

The social customer-service platform was developed by two dynamic entrepreneurs, Brad Birnbaum and Jeremy Suriel, in 2015.  Although the terms on which Kustomer was acquired were not publicized, the report confirmed and valued the acquisition at a billion dollars.

According to PitchBook’s data, the startup company received private funding valued at $710 million about a year ago, whereas Tiger Global Management and Coatue Management remain the investors that have brought Kustomer this far.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that influenced humans to embrace the means to exist digitally, which entails conducting business via online shopping outlets (e.g., Facebook Shop), making payment via remittance platforms, and communicating via instant messaging rather than voice calls. However, roughly 175 million active users access its WhatsApp Business Messenger daily to conduct business.

Facebook statistics prove that its messenger platforms are the most utilized means of communication in this era, conversely, the social media platform intends to integrate Kustomer into WhatsApp just like it’s customer-services platform has integrated Facebook and Instagram messenger since October.

Prior to acquiring the customer-services platform, Kustomer has had dealings with the social media giant since October 2020, using its tool to effortlessly manage and respond to a series of Facebook customers seeking inquiries via its messenger app.

Lately, the social media giant has been twice as active in managing its social platforms’ contents to promote positivity towards the election and civic responsibility.

As of May 2020, the social media giant launched its ‘Facebook Shop’ that serves as an online store within its social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, business owners can combine their account with the Shop platform to ease management by connecting the business to other active users. Facebook is expected to be regarded as a ‘social commerce’ platform since it has been responsive to generating revenue digitally with diverse social platforms.

Overtime, the Social Commerce platform has lucratively gained its reputation to have successfully acquired over a hundred social platforms signed under its administration.

Amongst the list of subsidiary tech companies signed to Facebook, WhatsApp Messenger remains the premier to have been acquired for $19 billion in 2014, while Instagram, the photo and video sharing app, was purchased for a billion dollars in 2012. Meanwhile, in May 2020, Giphy was bought for $400m by Facebook.