The Way In Which Apps Like WhatsApp, WeChat Helps Make Money Whilst Providing Free Texting And Calling6129545
Ever wondered just how a messaging app can make money whilst offering free texting and calling? WhatsApp users within India may be surprised to discover 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 just about the best example of the large possibilities that messaging apps hold. With over 900 million monthly active users, WeChat assists them to do every thing from messaging, purchasing grocery, hailing cabs, ordering online food as well as offline payments at restaurants - this all without having to go to another app. These types of services not just offer the company extraordinary customer stickiness, additionally they create a remarkable revenue model.
At this point, WeChat's rivals outside China this includes WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber and also Line are behind the curve on this front, even though some have begun on the path to becoming greater platforms. "The reason chat apps are widening 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 just a provider of communication tools chat, voice and also video) to being a platform for the exchange of services, payment mechanisms and also content consumption." WhatsApp, the biggest messaging app in the world with 1.3 billion monthly active users, introduced a business version in India early on this week. "Based on research, we all know that people are utilizing WhatsApp to speak with businesses. make business messaging less difficult for folks and more effective for businesses," a WhatsApp spokesperson said in respond to ET's questions. Whatsapp Business is a separate app from Whatsapp Messenger, aimed mainly at giving a direct communicating platform to smaller businesses, many of who may be using WhatsApp already.
Whilst Whatsapp has maintained the service free, it may extend it to bigger businesses with added features for example analytics, by which it could charge a usage fee at a later stage, as a result creating a revenue model, segment watchers said. This also is geared at improving subscriber connect which it can make use of for future monetization of its other services. The greater agenda - and a more crucial one - for these firms is to get active users to spend far more time on the app or services and make it viable for revenue generation, based on analysts.
"Every single technology company is vying for consumer stickiness, interaction along with time invested on the app, and in order to keep them around the app's ecosystem they're widening themselves to become platforms. Just being messaging apps that provide free services is not going to be a good revenuegeneration model," said Jayanth Kolla, founder of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.
