South Africa, Sept. 22 -- Marketing teams already have to make difficult choices between media spend, prizes, creative, production and campaign technology.

From 1 October 2026, another cost needs to be considered. Meta is introducing charges for service messages sent through the WhatsApp Business Platform.

These are the messages businesses send in response to customers, such as entry confirmations, validation requests, status updates and follow-up prompts. They have traditionally been free within the customer service window.

Under Meta's published South African pricing, service messages will cost roughly 15c at current exchange rates. When a business solution provider adds a 6c fee, businesses pay approximately 21c per delivered servic...