Australians as a whole love Facebook. As a percentage of our population we are amongst the highest users of Facebook in the world. This extends to Facebook Messenger with 13 million Australians using Messenger each month — nearly 80% of all smartphone users in Australia (and over half the population).
For this reason we are also one of the first countries that Facebook roll out new features to. Australia is now one of the first markets outside of the US to receive the Discover tab.
The Discover tab brings ways for users to quickly find information they may need — kind of like Google Now and Bixby. Not only does the Discover tab include this information as needed but also includes the ability to browse and discover new experiences through the use of bots. The bots share automated content as it happens and can be customised for content such as news, weather, travel, fashion, TV shows, sports and more.
There are already over 200,000 bots available on Facebook Messenger including local ones such as Toby Tigerair, Domain, AFL and ABCNews AU.
With over 200 thousand bots on the Messenger platform, the Discover tab enables people to find businesses they love as well as browse new Messenger experiences they might not have known about otherwise. And for businesses this is a powerful new surface to connect with an engaged audience.Sophie Blachford, Brand Development Lead at Messenger
The Discover tab within Facebook Messenger will begin rolling out to Australians in the coming days and weeks. We are yet to see it on any of our devices but hope to see it soon. Let us know in the comments below if you have received the tab yet and what bots you are looking forward to activating.
