Just how Apps Like WhatsApp, WeChat May Make Money Whilst Offering up Free Texting And Calling1756900
Ever thought the way a messaging app can make money whilst offering free texting and calling? WhatsApp users within India may be surprised to know there is a lot more to messaging apps than communicating. Here is how: by providing services for example digital payments, online shopping and also content.
China's WeChat is probably the ultimate example of the vast potential which messaging apps hold. With well over 900 million monthly active users, WeChat assists them do everything from messaging, buying grocery, hailing cabs, buying online food and also offline payments at restaurants - this all without having to go to another app. These kinds of services not only offer the company extraordinary customer stickiness, additionally they create a wonderful revenue model.
At this point, WeChat's opponents outside China this includes 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 widening 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 shifting from being just 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 the planet with 1.3 billion monthly active users, introduced a business version in India early this week. "Based on research, we know that people are employing WhatsApp to talk to businesses. make business messaging far more convenient for folks and more productive for businesses," a WhatsApp representative said in respond to ET's questions. Whatsapp Business is a separate app from Whatsapp Messenger, aimed largely at giving a direct communicating platform to small businesses, the majority of who might be using WhatsApp already.
Whilst Whatsapp has maintained the service free, it could broaden it to larger businesses with added features like analytics, by which it may well charge a usage fee at a later stage, as a result creating a revenue model, segment watchers said. This also is aimed at increasing subscriber connect that it can make use of for future monetization of their other services. The bigger agenda - and a more crucial one - for these businesses is to get active users to take far more time on the app or services and also make it viable for income generation, according to experts.
"Every technology company is vying 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 applications offering free services won't be a solid revenuegeneration model," said Jayanth Kolla, founding father of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.
