Facebook owner closes business app

Facebook owner Meta said on Tuesday that it was shutting down its Workplace business application to focus on artificial intelligence and the meta-universe, UNN reports citing CBS News.

Details

The company said it believes that the artificial intelligence and metaverse technologies it is developing will "fundamentally change the way we work" as it phases out Workplace, an online collaboration tool for enterprise customers.

Existing customers can use Workplace until August 31, 2025, when they will be given the option to migrate to Zoom's Workvivo product, which Meta called its "single best migration partner." According to the company, customers will be able to view their Workplace data for about a year after the program stops working.

The decision to abandon the program comes as Meta is investing billions in developing its meta universe and AI capabilities while cutting thousands of jobs in other departments. In April, the company launched new AI-powered chatbots that demonstrated both impressive capabilities and strange trends. For example, when the Meta AI agent was launched on social media, it tried to distribute non-existent items to members of the "Buy Nothing" group on Facebook.

Addendum

Workplace, introduced in 2016, allows colleagues to share files and provides a hub for company policies and documents, among other features. In 2021, the app had 7 million paid users.