It is now preparing to launch the product more broadly into businesses, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Facebook at Work, which started its pilot program in January with up to 100 businesses, may be released as a freemium product by the end of the year, according to Recode. Facebook now makes most of its money by selling advertising slots for marketers to target its users, but it will keep corporate clients’ data separate and not show ads to business users.
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On the desktop edition of the platform, users will be able to choose between their at-work and at-home Facebook accounts while, on mobile, Facebook at Work exists on its own, as a standalone app. Facebook could also charge for support and/or assistance with the service.
Julien Codorniou who leads face book at work said that the launch date of the product is still waiting.
Facebook at Work will be the company’s first venture into generating subscription revenue.
Builders on a United Kingdom construction site are using Facebook at Work to snap and post pictures of what they accomplish each day, sending it round the world to other branches of the company in Japan and Germany. Many of those companies are just now starting to expand the product internally. Both firms will ramp up the number of employees using Facebook at Work to test how it functions as a company-wide tool.
The app has a variety of feeds, groups, cat features and other features that can be found in a social networking site but the network sharing can be done only within a company. Re/Code claims that Facebook at Work is essentially “a almost identical version of the social network designed specifically for communicating with colleagues”.
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Facebook has its work cut out for it (no pun intended) in entering this crowded enterprise social platform field, and some aren’t convinced that Facebook has what it takes to really make a significant dent in it despite its ubiquitousness and resources.
