WhatsApp Business Model
The cluster discusses WhatsApp's original $1/year subscription model, its profitability prior to Facebook's acquisition, the shift to free usage, and debates on current and future monetization strategies without ads.
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That would have stopped working in a few years: nowadays lot of different people stopped using WhatsApp almost entirely using Facebook Messanger / Telegram / etc. 1$/year is just too low-proft and too risky
and whatsapp used to have a mandatory subscription in mahor western countries (~$1/year) that was profitable. The sub was removed by facebook who were likely interested in the private data value, not the sub profit.
what has fb gained from whatsapp? theyre not charging for it right?
They dropped that pretty fast. Nobody is going to pay for WhatsApp when other apps offer the same for free.WhatsApp can actually be monetised successfully by a company like Facebook.
I am not a WhatsApp user but a number of my friends use it. I think what they did well are: (1) You automatically upload your contact list to their servers. If any of friends start to use WhatsApp you will see it on the list (2) Smart phones were gaining adoption in many Asian markets and their value proposition of cheap unlimited messaging plan resonated very well (3) They charged for their product after initial adoption so they don't have to be tied to VC money forever and avoided annoyin
Hey, I am one of the editors on this story, and we had the same question. Sharing with you a separate story from this package that explains the math/finance of WhatsApp. Hope this answers your question: https://restofworld.org/2024/how-whatsapp-for-business-chang...
The only reason it's free is so WhatsApp can make money at some point. If there are people who won't pay, ever, then there's less reason to keep them as users.Not "no reason", however. I'm sure WhatsApp could find a way to monetise them, or just leverage them for network effect. WhatsApp is a lightweight replacement for text messages, not a full-blown social network. You pay a buck, you get free text messages, not unending trickery to overcome your privacy option
AFAIK that's only the plan. right now they have very little if any revenue. People use Whatsapp because they are too poor to afford text messaging. My guess is that lots will leave even at 1 USD per year
WhatsApp charged for their service to make it viable without ads. It isn’t Instagram or Snapchat
I get why one would feel this way if this was one of Meta’s social media apps, but WhatsApp is one of the biggest messaging apps used in so many countries and perhaps also helped kill the telecoms companies paid sms plans to force cheaper sms msging rates, if anything WhatsApp is perhaps the best value Meta has provided to the world, bringing the world closer.