Facebook has plans to move its Workplace business site to its own domain in 2019. The social network has been contacting businesses that use Workplace to inform them of the upcoming move, according to a report on CNBC. Companies that use Facebook's alternative to Slack and Microsoft Teams include the likes of Walmart, Starbucks and Chevron.
All the same, Walmart's vice president Joe Park indicated that at least some of the rationale was to reassure business customers that their data is kept apart from the consumer side of things.
"The assurances we got were that data resides outside the consumer version of Facebook, and it's starting from the top to bottom, where they'll even change the domain name to reflect that," Park told CNBC.
The new site will, predictably enough, live on Workplace.com a domain that is now live, but currently used to market the benefits of Facebook's business offering.
Workplace product manager Luke Taylor confirmed the move later in an interview with CNBC, saying "this is something that we want to do from a brand point of view but also something that I think gives our customers more trust in the product itself."
Workplace is now at a point where it needs its own identity, Taylor believes.
"When you look at the Oculuses, Instagrams and even the Facebooks of the world, they all have their own domains and their own brand identity," he said. "As we've seen our growth increase so rapidly and our traction in the market increase, we just felt it was exactly the right time to step forward with our own brand."
While not quite as synonymous with collaborative chat as Slack or Microsoft Teams, Workplaces has got off to a decent start. A year ago, Facebook revealed that more than 30,000 businesses were onboard, and although the company hasn't revealed more recent figures, this latest move suggests a confidence that the business-based product is here to stay.
