Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:$WMT) has signed on as a new customer for Workplace, which is the enterprise version of Facebook’s social network specifically intended for interoffice communication. Do you know what that means? It means the largest employer in the United States is now working with the U.S.’s largest social network.
While Facebook (NASDAQ:$FB) has yet to announce how many of Walmart’s 2.3 million employees are using the Workplace service, the social media giant did confirm that it is the company’s largest Workplace deployment in the United States. What does this mean? Well, it means there are more Walmart employees with access to the Workplace service than any of Facebook’s other customers.
According to a Facebook spokesperson, Walmart is not yet paying for Workplace as Facebook offers a 90-day free trial of the service. However, Walmart intends on becoming a paying customer once the free trial is over.
If you’ve never heard of Workplace before, don’t worry – you’re not the only one. It doesn’t tend to make a lot of headlines, but Facebook claims its growing. As of right now, Workplace has 14,000 companies using the service, including Lyft and Starbucks (NASDAQ:$SBUX). Workplace launched last October.
The takeaway? One could say the Walmart news is a reminder that Facebook’s business is expanding beyond digital advertising.
Featured Image: depositphotos/VIPDesignUSA
