Facebook Inc launched a workplace version of its mobile app and website on Monday, marking the social networking company’s first foray into the hotly competitive and crowded enterprise software arena.
The product, called Workplace by Facebook, has been in testing for more than a year and is now available to all businesses. It is designed for workplace communication and collaboration, putting Facebook in direct competition with the fast-growing startup Slack.
Workplace is a subscription product – a departure for advertising-driven Facebook – with businesses paying $1 to $3 per user. Slack’s least expensive business plan charges about $7 per user.Slack did not respond to a request for comment.
Workplace is the latest move by Facebook to take on competitors in all areas of social networking and mobile communications. Over the past several months it also has rolled out products to challenge the fast-growing ephemeral photo-sharing app Snapchat.
But the company will have to overcome the fact that Facebook is not really a work tool and is often viewed as a distraction in offices. To combat that, Workplace does not require people to sign in with their personal accounts and limits News Feed – Facebook’s main feature where users can see regular updates from friends and others that they follow – to company announcements, memos and communications.
“We want to replace a lot of old technologies like internal emails, mailing lists, newsletters,” said Julien Codorniou, Facebook’s global head of Workplace. “These are things that people want to get rid of.”
