Facebook has acquired ServiceFriend which is a startup that builds bots. Experts are speculating that this is for the new Calibra wallet support service, however, Facebook hasn’t yet approved this news.
While Facebook is prepping for its Libra launch in 2020, it also has acquired ServiceFriend which is a start-up that builds bots. Experts already have speculated that this is possibly meant for the Calibra wallet support service.
First, this news was published in an Israel where ServiceFriend is situated. One of its largest investors, Roberto Singler, alerted one of the local publications about this matter. While Facebook hasn’t yet approved the relevance to Calibra on this deal, ServiceFriend also forwarded this to Facebook without commenting anything else.
Facebook only has approved that this deal has happened by saying:
“We acquire smaller tech companies from time to time. We don’t always discuss our plans.”
But while the people involved share no information about the deal, their LinkedIn profiles tell a lot more. For example, both ServiceFriend co-founders have indicated on their LinkedIn pages that they now work at Facebook within the Calibra digital wallet group. They have started these jobs just a month ago, which indicates that the deal really has happened in the recent month.
Facebook doesn’t want to comment on this matter, but it is fairly obvious that this new acquisition is going to power something bot-related. Also, ServiceFriend has worked with Facebook in the past on building hybrid bots for Facebook’s Messenger app for companies to use. When going on the Calibra website, it says “We are here for you.” and claims that the support service will be live 24/7 either on WhatsApp and Messenger.
Meanwhile, Facebook has had severe problems in the past with chatbots. In 2015, they launched a personal assistant called M and later, in 2016, also bots that let users talk with businesses on Messenger. The problem was that nothing worked as promised and, in some cases, it was even worse than before. That is why experts are claiming that it will be hard for Facebook and Calibra, in general, to raise trust they have once lost within their users and most importantly potential users.
In other news, we recently reported that Facebook has finally revealed the full list of all the fiat currencies that are going to back the new digital currency – Libra. Now it has come to light that almost 50% for each Libra coin will be backed from U.S. Dollars, followed by Euros which will account for approximately 18% of the backing. Also 14% of Yen, 11% British Pounds, and 7% from Singapore Dollars.
However, many members of the Libra association are already indicating mixed feelings as regards the Libra project. Last month, after receiving heat from US legislators, several firms were said to have distanced themselves from the cryptocurrency.
