Facebook is reportedly working on a new website called Facebook at Work that will compete with Microsoft Office, LinkedIn and Google.
The social networking giant is developing a website that employees can use to chat with their colleagues, connect with professional contacts, and share documents, according to sources of Financial Times.
Facebook has been testing the product in some companies based in London. The sources added that it works similarly to Microsoft's Office 365, OneDrive and SharePoint where employees can create a group to chat with each other. Users can also share documents similar to Google Drive. LinkedIn was mentioned because it is a popular site for professionals, and this group is the company's target users.
Facebook at Work will have the same news feeds and groups present in the regular Facebook page but will allow users to keep their personal identity separate from their work identity.
An anonymous source of Techcrunch said back in June that the company is working on a website called FB@Work to bring a positive vibe in the office.
"We are making work more fun and efficient by building an at-work version of Facebook," the source said. "We will touch code throughout the stack and on all platforms (web, iOS, Android, etc.)."
Even if Facebook is banned from most offices because employers thought that it might hinder employees from doing their work, some companies are using the site to cascade internal communications in a Closed Group.
"Everyone at Facebook uses Facebook for work," one ex-Facebook employee told Techcrunch. "Most of their communication and planning is done through Messages and Groups. It would be a pretty natural thing to try to expose this way of using Facebook to get things done at the office to the rest of the world. It's a really fast and efficient way to get things done."
The pricing of the new product was not revealed but it is expected to be free during its initial launch, USA Today reported.
Facebook refused to comment.
