The Way Apps Like WhatsApp, WeChat May Make Money Whilst Providing Free Texting And Calling368776
Have you ever wondered just how a messaging app can make money while providing free texting and calling? WhatsApp users in India might be surprised to find out that there is more to messaging apps than communicating. Here's how: by providing services like digital payments, online shopping and also content.
China's WeChat is just about the perfect example of the huge possibilities which messaging apps hold. With more than Nine hundred million monthly active users, WeChat enables them to do anything from messaging, purchasing grocery, hailing cabs, purchasing online food as well as offline payments at restaurants - all this without having to go to another app. These kinds of services not merely provide the company unbelievable customer stickiness, additionally they create a wonderful revenue model.
At the moment, WeChat's opponents outside China including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber as well as Line are behind the curve on this front, although some have begun on the road to becoming greater platforms. "The actual reason chat apps are expanding beyond communications is to build a lasting 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 merely a provider of communication tools chat, voice and also video) to being 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 early on this week. "Based on research, we know that people are using WhatsApp to speak with businesses. make business messaging more convenient for folks and more effective for businesses," a WhatsApp spokesman said in response to ET's questions. Whatsapp Business is a separate app from Whatsapp Messenger, aimed mostly at giving a direct communication platform to smaller businesses, the majority of who may be using WhatsApp already.
Whilst Whatsapp has maintained the service free, it could broaden it to much larger businesses with added features like analytics, by which it may well demand a usage fee at a later stage, therefore developing a revenue model, segment watchers said. This actually also is aimed at raising subscriber connect that it can make use of for future monetization of their other services. The larger agenda - and a more important one - for these firms is to get active users to spend much more time on the app or services and make it viable for profit generation, based on experts.
"Every single technology company is vying for consumer stickiness, interaction and also time spent on the app, and in order to keep them within the app's ecosystem they're widening themselves to become platforms. Merely being messaging applications that offer free services isn't going to be a solid revenuegeneration model," said Jayanth Kolla, founder of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.
