Editing Internet bot (section)

==Commercial bots==
{{more citations needed section|date=August 2018}}
There has been a great deal of controversy about the use of bots in an automated trading function. Auction website [[eBay]] took legal action in an attempt to suppress a third-party company from using bots to look for bargains on its site; this approach backfired on eBay and attracted the attention of further bots. The United Kingdom-based [[bet exchange]], [[Betfair]], saw such a large amount of traffic coming from bots that it launched a WebService API aimed at bot programmers, through which it can actively manage bot interactions.{{fact|date=November 2022}}

Bot farms are known to be used in online app stores, like the [[Apple App Store]] and [[Google Play]], to manipulate positions<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://toucharcade.com/community/threads/biggest-fraud-in-the-top-25-free-ranking.121800/|title=Biggest FRAUD in the Top 25 Free Ranking|website=TouchArcade – iPhone, iPad, Android Games Forum}}</ref> or increase positive ratings/reviews.<ref>{{cite web |title=App Store fake reviews: Here's how they encourage your favourite developers to cheat |url=http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2012/02/07/app-store-fake-reviews-heres-how-they-encourage-your-favourite-developers-to-cheat/ |website=Electricpig |access-date=2014-06-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018180436/http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2012/02/07/app-store-fake-reviews-heres-how-they-encourage-your-favourite-developers-to-cheat/ |archive-date=2017-10-18 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

A rapidly growing, benign form of internet bot is the [[chatbot]]. From 2016, when Facebook Messenger allowed developers to place chatbots on their platform, there has been an exponential growth of their use on that app alone. 30,000 bots were created for Messenger in the first six months, rising to 100,000 by September 2017.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://venturebeat.com/2017/04/18/facebook-messenger-hits-100000-bots/|title=Facebook Messenger Hits 100,000 bots |access-date=2017-09-22|date=2017-04-18 }}</ref> Avi Ben Ezra, CTO of SnatchBot, told Forbes that evidence from the use of their chatbot building platform pointed to a near future saving of millions of hours of human labor as 'live chat' on websites was replaced with bots.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/mnewlands/2017/12/22/these-chatbot-usage-metrics-will-change-your-customer-service-strategy/3/#382ca6cf364a |title=These Chatbot Usage Metrics Will Change Your Customer Service Strategy |author=Murray Newlands |website=[[Forbes]] |access-date=2018-03-08}}</ref>

Companies use internet bots to increase online engagement and streamline communication. Companies often use bots to cut down on cost; instead of employing people to communicate with consumers, companies have developed new ways to be efficient. These chatbots are used to answer customers' questions: for example, [[Domino's Pizza|Domino's]] developed a chatbot that can take orders via [[Facebook Messenger]]. Chatbots allow companies to allocate their employees' time to other tasks.<ref name="MarTech Today">{{cite news |url=https://martechtoday.com/how-companies-are-chatbots-marketing-209475 |title=How companies are using chatbots for marketing: Use cases and inspiration |date=2018-01-22 |work=MarTech Today |access-date=2018-04-10 |language=en-US}}</ref>