For much of the past decade, WhatsApp was the de facto choice for businesses venturing into direct messaging.
WhatsApp's Strengths (Historically):
Massive User Base: Its sheer ubiquity, especially in regions like India, Brazil, and parts of Europe and Africa, made it an unavoidable channel.
Simplicity & Familiarity: Its user-friendly interface meant consumers were already comfortable using it for personal communication, making business interactions feel natural.
WhatsApp Business API: Enabled larger enterprises to integrate with CRMs, send notifications, and handle customer support at scale.
Direct Customer Service: Allowed for one-on-one customer support, order updates, and personalized communication.
Status/Stories Feature: Provided a familiar way to share updates akin to other social media platforms.
Emerging Challenges & Points of Friction for Marketers:
Privacy Policy Changes: Facebook's (Meta's) controversial privacy singapore telegram mobile phone number list policy updates in 2021 caused significant user exodus and eroded trust for some, pushing users to privacy-focused alternatives.
Monetization Strategy: WhatsApp's evolving monetization strategy, primarily through paid message templates and session-based pricing on its Business API, can become costly for high-volume marketing.
Limited Organic Reach (for Marketing): While great for 1:1 support, mass marketing on WhatsApp without paying per message is restricted. Broadcast lists have limitations, and group features are less robust for large communities.
"Walled Garden" Ecosystem: Less open API compared to Telegram, limiting advanced customization and seamless integration with a wide array of third-party tools.
Less Robust Community Tools: Groups are functional but lack the advanced features (e.g., channels, sophisticated moderation bots) of Telegram for large-scale community building.
Spam & User Experience: The push for monetization has, at times, led to more unsolicited business messages, potentially eroding the user experience and increasing block rates.