On Monday 10 October 2016 Facebook officially launched its social network for businesses. The company wants to conquer the lucrative business software market with a product whose final name is Workplace by Facebook (formerly Facebook at Work).
While other leading US software companies (Microsoft, Apple, Google) have been active players on the business software market, Facebook has reached a market value of $350 billion and annual sales of $25 billion just by selling advertisements.
Workplace by Facebook is a standalone application, enabling teams to communicate using text messages, chat and videos. It wants to compete with established companies like Microsoft and its products Skype or Yammer, as well as with new corporate communication tools such as Slack or HipChat which are popular especially in the US.
