Here's a look at Facebook's plan to kill unicorn startup Slack
Flickr/marshillonline
Facebook for Work is almost exactly like regular Facebook, but tweaked slightly to fit a corporate environment. The idea is that it will be super easy for people to use it in a business setting because they already know how to use it socially.
Facebook employees have been using Facebook to fulfill work responsibilities for a long time and the closed beta, which Facebook launched in January, has had more than 100 companies testing it so far.
Facebook plans to launch the product for free and will offer premium features that businesses can choose to pay for (no ads, ever). By vying to be the main internal communication tool for businesses, Facebook is strongly challenging other established products like Yammer, owned by Microsoft, or Slack, which is one of the fastest-growing business apps of all time and now worth an estimated $2.8 billion, having raised $160 million.
Facebook told Business Insider the company is rolling out the "for work" product to hundreds of more test companies, and that companies that have already signed on, like Heineken and Hootsuite, are "experiencing solid daily engagement rates" and"seeing increased productivity using the Groups and News Feed features."
Facebook sent over some screenshots of how Facebook For Work could look in action.
Here's a company's main group page:
Facebook for work will also have its own standalone app (so you never have to miss an update about the printers):
Instead of "friending" your coworkers, it looks like you'll be able to "follow" them:
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