The Way In Which Apps Like WhatsApp, WeChat Could Make Money Whilst Offering up Free Texting And Calling5593823
Ever wondered how a messaging app could make money whilst giving free texting and calling? WhatsApp users within India might be surprised to learn that there are more to messaging apps than communicating. Here's how: by offering services like digital payments, online shopping and content.
China's WeChat is probably the perfect example of the great possibilities that messaging apps hold. With more than 900 million monthly active users, WeChat enables them to do anything 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 only provide the company extraordinary customer stickiness, in addition they create a outstanding revenue model.
Right now, WeChat's opponents outside China this includes WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber as well as 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 expanding beyond communications is to create 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 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 content consumption." WhatsApp, the largest messaging app on earth with 1.3 billion monthly active users, introduced a business version in India very early this week. "Based on research, we know that people are employing WhatsApp to speak with businesses. make business messaging far more convenient for individuals and more effective for businesses," a WhatsApp spokesperson said in response to ET's questions. Whatsapp Business is a different app from Whatsapp Messenger, aimed mostly at giving a direct communication platform to smaller businesses, a lot of who might be using WhatsApp already.
Even while Whatsapp has placed the service free, it might expand it to much larger businesses with added features like analytics, by which it could charge a usage fee at a later stage, therefore creating a revenue model, segment watchers said. This actually also is targeted at raising subscriber connect that it can leverage for future monetization of its other services. The larger agenda - and a more important one - for these firms is to get active users to take more time on the app or services and make it viable for income generation, according to experts.
"Every technology company is vying for consumer stickiness, interaction as well as time invested on the app, and in order to keep them within the app's ecosystem they are broadening themselves to turn into platforms. Just being messaging applications that provide cost-free services certainly won't be a strong revenuegeneration model," said Jayanth Kolla, founder of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.
