The Facebook-owned communications platform WhatsApp has announced the rollout of their WhatsApp Business API, which will enable businesses to manage communications and send notifications and other non-promotional messages, such as appointment reminders, event tickets and more. WhatsApp has emphasized that when using this new platform, the communication must be initiated by customer sending a message or requesting information. Moreover, the communications between the two parties will incorporate end-to-end encryption, despite traffic passing through an API. There is a cost to this service – the businesses can reply to these messages free of charge within 24 hours, while all the replies sent after this period will be charged at a set price. Another useful feature of WhatsApp Business is that it will soon be possible to use the Facebook Ads Manager to add a “click-to-chat” button on Facebook advertisements, with a direct link to WhatsApp Business chat. WhatsApp Business for Android…
More than 7 years ago when Laimis joined the DIDWW team, he did not have an extensive knowledge of telecommunications. However, his tenacity, people skills, and excellent grasp of the English language landed him the position of an Account Manager. Today, thousands of phone calls, emails and meetings later, he has become one of the key people in charge of Business Development at DIDWW. Laimis can close deals like no other employee, and, as a demanding mentor, his trainees tend to follow in his footsteps and also become successful sales people. Currently Laimis is enjoying his new role as a father to the cutest 8-month-old girl Eivina, and most of his free time is dedicated to his family. He still enjoys a game of basketball with his friends or playing video games – bearing significant responsibilities at work requires some relaxing time off. Read the full interview with Laimis below…
The city of Kitchener, in Canada, Ontario, is home of a new app called OpenPhone. Its ambition is to help small entrepreneurs stopping the blurred line between private and business phone calls. Many services already exist in this specific field, like Phone.com or Grasshopper, but OpenPhone’s main feature is to simplify the process and focus and ease of use. As of today, the app let user share one phone number across several phone, using VoIP technology. Still in its beta version and available on the Appstore since January, the company expects to launch in a couple of months a final version. An Android version hit the Google platform in June. OpenPhone will allow customers to make concurrent calls on several devices, transcribed voicemail and call forwarding. This way, small businesses will have the opportunity to have a better communication between customers and entrepreneurs.
Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), Taiwan Mobile and Far Eas Tone (FET) Telecommunications have increased their sales thanks to new cheaper mobile plans. CHT got NT$19.51 billion (US$652.9 million) in sales for May, an increase of 12.71% from last year with a Net profit of NT$4.56 billion. Its optical broadband service reached 3.563 million subscribers, and its MOD service users reached 1.758 million on the same period. Also in May, Taiwan Mobile got NT$10.01 billion, with a net profit of NT$1.51 billion, thus having NT$49.86 billion in revenue on the last 12 months. In May, FET was able, on its side to gather a revenue of NT$7.299 billion for a net profit of NT$984 million.
After President Trump asked the U.S. Commerce Department to find an agreement to save ZTE Corp., an agreement has been found. It all started when an investigation found out that ZTE was doing business with Iran and North Korea by sending U.S. products. Despite the opposition of several members of congress, mostly Democrats, but also many Republicans, that are accusing Trump of bending under Chinese pressure, ZTE will be able to trade with American companies. ZTE was banned from doing any business with the U.S. since April 15th and has lost $3 billion. ZTE will have to pay a $1.3 billion fine to the U.S. in addition to a $900 million fine they already paid last year. Part of the deal, aside from the fine, includes a change in management and will have to get parts from U.S. suppliers. The situation between ZTE and the U.S. Administration created some tensions…