Meta continues to push its messaging app WhatsApp to attract more businesses by introducing a cloud-based API service and announcing new paid features for its WhatsApp Business app for businesses.

“The best business experiences meet people where they are. Today, I’m excited to announce that we’re opening WhatsApp to businesses of any size around the world through the WhatsApp Cloud API,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

“In just a few minutes, any business or developer can easily access our service, build directly on top of WhatsApp to customize their experience, and interact with customer APIs using our secure WhatsApp Cloud powered by Meta Response Time Interaction to speed up their experience,” he said.

He noted that this is an important step towards helping more businesses connect with people and helping “more people get their message across to businesses large and small they want to support”.

Zuckerberg mentioned that more than 1 billion users connect with business accounts through its messaging service every week. This includes finding products and services, asking for help, or buying anything from big-ticket items to everyday items.