How Apps Like WhatsApp, WeChat Could Make Money Whilst Offering Free Texting And Calling8107096
Ever thought about how a messaging app can make money whilst providing free texting and calling? WhatsApp users at India may be surprised to discover that there are much more to messaging apps than communicating. Here is how: by providing services for example digital payments, online shopping as well as content.
China's WeChat is just about the ultimate example of the great potential that messaging apps hold. With well over Nine hundred million monthly active users, WeChat helps them do every thing from messaging, purchasing grocery, hailing cabs, ordering online food and even offline payments at restaurants - this all without having to go to another app. These kinds of services not just provide the company outstanding customer stickiness, in addition they create a remarkable revenue model.
Right now, WeChat's opponents outside China such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber as well as Line are behind the curve on this front, although some have started on the road to becoming bigger platforms. "The actual reason chat apps are widening beyond communications is to create 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 simply a provider of communication tools chat, voice and also video) to becoming a platform for the exchange of services, payment mechanisms and content consumption."
WhatsApp, the largest messaging app on the planet with 1.3 billion every month active users, introduced a business version in India early this week. "Based on research, we realize that people are utilizing WhatsApp to speak to businesses. make business messaging more convenient for people and more efficient for businesses," a WhatsApp spokesman said in respond to ET's questions. Whatsapp Business is a different app from Whatsapp Messenger, aimed mainly at giving a direct communicating platform to small enterprises, the majority of who may be using WhatsApp already.
Even while Whatsapp has placed the service free, it may broaden it to larger businesses with added features such as analytics, by which it could demand a usage fee at a later stage, therefore creating a revenue model, segment watchers said. This actually also is targeted at increasing subscriber connect which it can make use of for future monetization of its other services. The bigger agenda - and a more crucial one - for these corporations is to get active users to take a lot more time on the app or services as well as make it viable for revenue generation, based on experts.
"Every technology company is vying for consumer stickiness, interaction and time spent on the app, and in order to keep them within the app's ecosystem they are broadening themselves to become platforms. Simply being messaging apps offering cost-free services will not be a good revenuegeneration model," said Jayanth Kolla, founder of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.
