They create a "supermarket" of WhatsApp tools: It's now an operating system

WhatsApp Market lists hundreds of tools that operate like apps, but within the messaging app.

When WhatsApp goes down, Latin America stops." This statement was made by Christian Pasquel, a developer and creator of WhatsApp Market, a WhatsApp "supermarket" with dozens of tools within the world's most popular messaging app.

Other applications may go down, including banking applications and even the most used social networks. But if it happens to WhatsApp, it has an impact on work, social, and family life like no other communication mechanism.

This concept led Pasquel to design a platform that brings together all the bots within this platform.

How WhatsApp Market works

WhatsApp Market functions as an accessible and organized directory of bots that operate exclusively within WhatsApp. Instead of searching for scattered links or not knowing that these solutions exist, users can visit the wasap.market site and explore a catalog grouped by function and country.

Bots are divided into two main groups: apps and stores. Apps are designed to perform specific functions such as reviewing resumes, booking appointments, offering legal assistance, or calculating taxes. Stores, for example, are designed to perform specific functions such as reviewing resumes, booking appointments, offering legal assistance, or calculating taxes. For their part, they operate as automated businesses that sell products or services directly through WhatsApp.

A central criterion of WhatsApp Market is complete automation. Bots must be able to complete transactions without human intervention. If, for example, a bot initiates an interaction but then ends up in a manual conversation to finalize a sale, it is excluded from the catalog.

The publication process is not automatic. Pasquel performs a usability test to verify that the bot works correctly, responds as expected, and is open to the general public. Corporate bots that are closed only to a company's clients are not accepted.

The platform allows you to search by keywords, filter by country (such as Uruguay, Mexico, or Argentina), and see the language in which the bot operates. Each entry has a brief description and a direct button to open WhatsApp and interact with the service.

Reflections on WhatsApp as an operating system

For Christian Pasquel, WhatsApp has become an informal but effective operating system. Although it was not conceived as such, today it fulfills the functions of a basic technological infrastructure.

"It is a foundation on which we build." They build tools for different purposes, within their limitations," he explains. The technical comparison is direct: "You don't use the operating system directly, you use the applications that run on it."

WhatsApp has become the environment where multiple digital tools are run. From scheduling appointments, making purchases, coordinating payments, processing government services, to sending remittances to other countries. Many of these tasks are no longer done from websites, but from a WhatsApp conversation.

For Pasquel, this transformation is especially visible in Latin America. "In China, with WeChat, an entire ecosystem was created. In Latin America, where access to the internet was via cell phone and not computer, WhatsApp was adopted because it was already available."

This massive adoption, coupled with the lack of competitive local solutions, consolidated its central role. "Without strong competition, WhatsApp became a structure," he maintains.

In addition to its omnipresence, there is a structural fact that reinforces this theory: dependency. "When WhatsApp goes down, not only personal communication is cut off. "Business operations, sales, government procedures, logistics, and even airport procedures are being halted," he warns.

Finally, Pasquel says, "You can fight WhatsApp or you can take advantage of what already exists," he reflects. He chose to build on that foundation.

By: Juan Pablo De Marco