How Apps Like WhatsApp, WeChat Helps Make Money Even while Providing Free Texting And Calling1282741
Ever thought about how a messaging app can make money while offering free texting and calling? WhatsApp users within India may be surprised to know that there is much more to messaging apps than communicating. Here's how: by providing services like digital payments, online shopping and content.
China's WeChat is among the perfect example of the great potential that messaging apps hold. With well over Nine hundred million monthly active users, WeChat assists them do every thing from messaging, purchasing grocery, hailing cabs, ordering online food and also offline payments at restaurants - this all without having to go to another app. These kinds of services not merely provide the company incredible customer stickiness, additionally they create a remarkable revenue model.
For now, WeChat's rivals outside China such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber and also Line are behind the curve on this front, even though some have started on the path to becoming larger platforms. "The actual reason chat apps are expanding beyond communications is to build a sustainable monetisation strategy," said Neha Dharia, a senior analyst with a focus on messaging at London-based research firm Ovum. "Chat apps are moving from being simply a provider of communication tools chat, voice as well as video) to becoming a platform for the exchange of services, payment mechanisms and content consumption."
WhatsApp, the biggest messaging app on earth with 1.3 billion every month active users, introduced a business version in India very early this week. "Based on research, we realize that people WhatsApp to talk to businesses. make business messaging far more convenient for individuals and much more productive for businesses," a WhatsApp spokesman said in response to ET's questions. Whatsapp Business is a separate app from Whatsapp Messenger, aimed largely at giving a direct communicating platform to small enterprises, the majority of who might be using WhatsApp already.
Whilst Whatsapp has kept the service free, it could broaden it to bigger businesses with added features like analytics, from which it may well demand a usage fee at a later stage, hence developing a revenue model, segment watchers said. This also is aimed at raising subscriber connect that it can leverage for future monetization of their other services. The larger agenda - and a more critical one - for these businesses is to get active users to invest more time on the app or services and also make it viable for profit generation, based on experts.
"Each technology company is competing for consumer stickiness, interaction as well as time spent on the app, and in order to keep them in the app's ecosystem they are broadening themselves to turn into platforms. Merely being messaging apps offering free services won't be a strong revenuegeneration model," said Jayanth Kolla, founding father of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.
