Tag Archives: flws

CEO Mark Zuckerberg set a 10-year strategy for Facebook ( FB ) on Tuesday that emphasized pushing its Messenger chat platform deeper into the business world with chatbots, enhancing Live video with virtual reality and expanding the social network to remote regions of the world using aircraft and satellites for beaming Internet services. Zuckerberg presented his vision in a keynote speech at the start of Facebook’s two-day F8 Developer Conference on Tuesday morning in San Francisco, before some 2,600 attendees. As widely expected, Zuckerberg announced a program for developers to write apps that are powered by artificial intelligence, known as chatbots. The digital assistants will help Messenger users communicate with businesses for services, perhaps to fix a problem or to buy goods. Consumers already use Messenger to communicate with businesses. More than 1 billion messages are sent between businesses and users via the app, Facebook says. Messenger is already used to request a lift from Uber or Lyft, purchase tickets for concerts and other events, make a payment and more. The addition of chatbots will make those connections deeper, with better services. The addition of chatbots also moves Facebook a step closer to making Messenger a revenue generator that will reach into the billions, through ad placements and fees for other services. Facebook has not commented on reports that ads are coming to Messenger. The company always has been cautious about monetizing products, as it did with its photo-sharing site Instagram, starting out slow before ramping things up. Bots Will Help You Pick Flowers For Delivery Chatbots are digital characters infused with artificial intelligence that can mimic human conversation. The idea is that businesses on Messenger could use chatbots to interact with customers via automated response systems, aiming to help boost sales. Chatbots can help businesses eliminate the human effort required for communicating with users. An example that Zuckerberg used was with 1-800-Flowers ( FLWS ), where a chatbot will help users on the selection and delivery of flowers, without the need for a phone call. Another was with CNN, which would send users a daily digest of stories, with story selection getting more personalized as time goes on. The bots can provide anything from automated subscription content, like weather and traffic updates, to customized communications, like receipts and shipping notifications, Facebook said. “Messenger will be the next big platform for connecting services,” Zuckerberg said. Messenger is one of Facebook’s fastest-growing products, with more than 900 million users, up from 800 million in December. Zuckerberg also laid out a vision for Facebook’s live video streaming service call Live. He envisioned a time when users will view Live video through a virtual reality platform, such as its Oculus Rift headset that began shipping last month. “We are at the golden age of video,” Zuckerberg said. VR Goggles To Become Eyeglass Size He also sees a time when VR goggles, which currently protrude across the upper face of a user and are held in place with headbands, will someday shrink to the size of eyeglasses. Facebook Live is comparable to the Twitter ( TWTR ) Periscope app, which launched last year and has logged more than 100 million broadcasts. Twitter has integrated Periscope into the Twitter app feed. Zuckerberg also revealed that Facebook is developing a solar-powered aircraft with a wingspan wider than a Boeing 737’s, able to fly at 60,000 feet, for delivering Internet service. Facebook is also planning to provide Internet service via satellites and said the first launch will take place next year. “Aircraft like these will help connect the whole world because they can affordably serve the 10% of the world’s population that live in remote communities without existing Internet infrastructure,” Zuckerberg said. Zuckerberg Presents A Political Message As he has at other events and presentations, Zuckerberg expressed a deep passion for connecting the world to the Internet — through Facebook. He even used the event to lash out at politicians who talk of building walls and slowing immigration. “Fearful voices are calling for building a wall, slowing immigration and even cutting access to the Internet,” he said. “Instead of building walls, we can help people build bridges, one connection at a time, one innovation at time. It takes courage to choose hope over fear,” he said. More than half the world’s population of 7 billion are not connected to the Internet. Before the conference started, news came that Messenger users can now import files from Dropbox, an online storage company that competes with Box ( BOX ). It’s the first time that Messenger has partnered with a cloud-based file-sharing service. The feature allows users to upload a file, including pictures and video that can be attached to the conversation. Facebook stock closed at 110.61, up 1.5%. Facebook is set to report Q1 earnings after the market close on April 27. Analysts expect revenue will rise 48% from the year-earlier quarter, to $5.25 billion, while earnings per share minus items also are expected to rise 48%, to 62 cents.