In a recent blog post, David Marcus, VP of Messaging Products at Facebook, disclosed some of the usage statistics of Facebook Messenger. In the blog, he reported that Messenger usage has reached 800 million users per month. While the post did not elaborate on text versus video usage, it is clear that Facebook Messenger has one of, if not the, largest group of users using a WebRTC based applications.
While this is interesting, the more significant comments discussed the changing landscape of communication. In the post, David talks about, “The disappearance of the phone number.” Essentially, his theory is that communications from within Facebook is easier, works across arrange of devices, and can be seen as a simple continuum. He argues that a user’s Facebook identity can replace their phone number. In fact, he goes on to point out how business interactions are much more effective within the social platform than by the phone. Facebook is even working on adding a personal assistant to the system to help their users manage their lives.
There seem to be two clear messages from this: first, WebRTC is changing the world, and it is happening fast; second, Facebook is moving to creating a real time representation environment for their billion users that is clearly angling to replace traditional telephony communications. The webification of communications is well underway, and it’s something we all need to understand.
Edited by
Kyle Piscioniere
