The Way Apps Like WhatsApp, WeChat Can Make Money Whilst Providing Free Texting And Calling2967209
Ever thought about how a messaging app can make money while offering free texting and calling? WhatsApp users at India might be surprised to discover there is a lot more to messaging apps than communicating. Here's how: by providing services for example digital payments, online shopping and content.
China's WeChat is one of the ultimate example of the large opportunity that messaging apps hold. With well over Nine hundred million monthly active users, WeChat enables them do almost everything from messaging, buying grocery, hailing cabs, ordering online food and also offline payments at restaurants - this all without needing to go to another app. These kinds of services not just provide the company incredible customer stickiness, in addition they create a outstanding revenue model.
Right now, WeChat's competition outside China such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber as well as Line are behind the curve on this front, even though some have started on the road to becoming greater platforms. "The actual 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 shifting away from being merely a provider of communication tools chat, voice and video) to becoming a platform for the exchange of services, payment mechanisms as well as content consumption."
WhatsApp, the biggest messaging app on the planet with 1.3 billion every month active users, introduced a business version in India early on this week. "Based on research, we all know that people WhatsApp to talk to businesses. make business messaging more convenient for folks and much more efficient 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 communication platform to smaller businesses, a lot of who may be using WhatsApp already.
While Whatsapp has placed the service free, it could extend it to much larger businesses with added features such as analytics, in which it could charge a usage fee at a later stage, as a result making a revenue model, segment watchers said. This also is geared at raising subscriber connect which it can leverage for future monetization of its other services. The bigger agenda - and a more critical one - for these companies is to get active users to invest far more time on the app or services and also make it viable for income generation, according to specialists.
"Each technology company is vying for consumer stickiness, interaction and also time invested on the app, and in order to keep them around the app's ecosystem they are broadening themselves to turn into platforms. Just being messaging applications that offer cost-free services isn't going to be a solid revenuegeneration model," said Jayanth Kolla, founder of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.
