Facebook's hyperlocal services launched in India

Facebook has silently introduced a new local service site in India that will help customers discover some of the best rated service providers in their area such as plumbing, spas, home care, automotive, etc. The Facebook services page will offer users local businesses and organisations based on their reviews ans ratings on Facebook. It also offers details such as address, contact numbers for the same too. “We’re in the early stages of testing a way for people to easily find more Pages for the services they’re interested in,” a Facebook spokesperson said. However, Facebook has not stated whether it has plans to monetise the service. The site is said to have been in the testing stage since November last year. Currently, the popular platforms that offer hyperlocal services across different segments are Quikr, UrbanClap, Roadrunnr, Opinio, Zopper and others. Recently, Facebook officially announced  a suite of tools designed to help Facebook users more easily communicate with businesses using Messenger. Now, businesses will be able to see their Facebook Page usernames being heavily promoted across the website, and Facebook will offer new ways to communicate with them such as Messenger Links, which are short URLs, and scannable Messenger Codes. These features are said to roll out in the “coming weeks.”