Shifting to new era of “messenger as a platform”

2016/03/31 Daisuke Minamide

what happened to messaging in 2015

historical moment of messaging

*Big 4 Messaging App: Whatsup, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, ViberSource: BI Intelligence

Success in monetization of chat app

Source: KPCB

Rise of AI

watson project adamOAK4deepface

personal assistant on demand service restaurant service scheduling assistant

from lab to real world

family assistant

investment trend in AI

Source: CB Insights

AI landscape

Source: VB Profiles

AI landscape(cont.)

Source: VB Profiles

new movement in messaging

next move of Facebook Messenger

it is rumored that Facebook will be announcing its own bot platform or bot market for messenger.

FB Messenger timeline in 2015

Wit.ai

Jan, 2015 Acquired Wit.ai

Mar, 2015 @ f8 open messenger API “messenger platform”

Mar, 2015 money transfer feature

Jan, 2016(unofficial) Chat SDK for “bot” build

Dec., 2015 uber integration

Apr, 2015 video calling feature

catching up Asian Messenger service move forward

Apr., 2016 @f8 chatbot???

what’s the bot or chatbot?

A bot is a software application that runs automated tasks(scripts) over the internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human.

-wikipedia

• a chatbot is designed to work on conversation with people and existing on chat app or social network.

• usually AI(NLP) is embedded in a chat bot so the chatbot can understand the context and perform much more complicated tasks than what a bot does.microsoft’s chatbot, Tay

Why so huge?

one chat app = all services needed

shifting to conversational UI

will chat dominate everything?

one chat app = all services needed<PC era> <Mobile era> <Chat app era>

browser x search OS x app store (vertical integration)

chat is everything (device/platform/os free)

conversation as the interface

conversation as the interface -voice base-

amazon echo

Google and Apple have been offering voice based input/control method. until recently google opens API of the feature, these are only used by Apple and Google.

apple Siri google voice search

conversation as the interface -text/chat base-

Source: techcrunch

Source: techcrunch

old but new type of input method/user interface is thriving due to evolution of AI/NLP technology and plenty of data set of text in the internet

practical application of conversation as the interface

Conversational Commerce

Source:BBVA innovation

Conversational Commercein the previous slide, you see that it was like the customer was talking to real agent. but all reply was made by AI from Magic(chat base commerce assistance service). conversational commerce(or conversation as the interface) will bring…

• more convenience: perform complex tasks and hassle free operation

• personalization: the more interaction, the more understanding

• support decision making: data driven recommendation

conversational commerce company

without AI with AI

(SMS)

fancy hands

fetch pana

luca

better

voice

Mona

make it “chat-able” -chatbot builders-

chat fueltelegram Prompt

not only developing new conversation base service, many existing app/service developers try to apply conversational UI. now there’re many developers which provide CDK(chat development kit) to build a bot aligned with existing services.

positioning map in messaging

App in

App

chat UI

platform play

speciality play

(SMS)

(email)

operator Luca

Panax.aim

Summary

• Big shift from app to chat is foreseeing by the fact that Facebook would take that path (wait and see at the incoming f8)

• if that shift will happen, chat app is the primary access of users and the center of services.

• and also, Chatbot will play a main role as a primary touch point of users to services

• developers are required to cope with conversational UI. already found the sign of this transition in commerce as conversational commerce and in other verticals.

• the biggest disruption of the movement is to bypass incumbent vertically integrated player such as Apple and Google.

• but key to success is underlying developers who could offer better UX than current services on mobile.

appendix

Investment in chat base AI company

operator Greylock partners

investments from notable investors in the Valley in 2015

Luka

$12M Investment in March 2015

$120k Investment in March 2015

$8M Investment in July 2015

$10M Investment in April 2015