The Way In Which Apps Like WhatsApp, WeChat Helps Make Money Whilst Offering Free Texting And Calling9014466
Ever thought about how a messaging app can make money whilst providing free texting and calling? WhatsApp users within India could be surprised to know that there is much more to messaging apps than communicating. Here's how: by offering services for example digital payments, online shopping as well as content.
China's WeChat is among the ultimate example of the great potential which messaging apps hold. With more than Nine hundred million monthly active users, WeChat helps them do every thing from messaging, buying grocery, hailing cabs, buying online food as well as offline payments at restaurants - all of this without having to go to another app. These types of services not just offer the company incredible customer stickiness, additionally they create a remarkable revenue model.
Right now, WeChat's opponents outside China including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber and also Line are behind the curve on this front, although some have begun on the way to becoming greater platforms. "The reason chat apps are widening beyond communications is to develop 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 also video) to becoming a platform for the exchange of services, payment mechanisms as well as content consumption." WhatsApp, the largest messaging app in the world 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 are employing WhatsApp to speak to businesses. make business messaging more convenient for people and much more efficient 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 communication platform to small enterprises, many of who might be using WhatsApp already.
Even while Whatsapp has placed the service free, it could broaden it to much larger businesses with added features for example analytics, by which it could charge a usage fee at a later stage, hence creating a revenue model, segment watchers said. This actually also is aimed at increasing 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 spend much more time on the app or services and make it viable for profit generation, according to experts.
"Each and every technology company is vying for consumer stickiness, interaction and time invested on the app, and in order to keep them around the app's ecosystem they are broadening themselves to become platforms. Simply being messaging applications that offer cost-free services isn't going to be a good revenuegeneration model," said Jayanth Kolla, founding father of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.
