The Way In Which Apps Like WhatsApp, WeChat Could Make Money Whilst Offering up Free Texting And Calling2858103
Ever thought about how a messaging app could make money whilst giving free texting and calling? WhatsApp users at India might be surprised to find out that there is far more to messaging apps than communicating. Here's how: by offering services such as digital payments, online shopping and content.
China's WeChat is among the best example of the large possibilities that messaging apps hold. With more than 900 million monthly active users, WeChat enables them to do every thing from messaging, purchasing grocery, hailing cabs, buying online food and also offline payments at restaurants - this all without needing to go to another app. These services not merely offer the company unbelievable customer stickiness, they also create a exceptional revenue model.
At the moment, WeChat's opponents outside China this includes WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber and Line are behind the curve on this front, even though some have started on the way to becoming bigger platforms. "The actual reason chat apps are widening beyond communications is to build 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 merely a provider of communication tools chat, voice as well as video) to becoming a platform for the exchange of services, payment mechanisms and also content consumption." WhatsApp, the largest messaging app in the world with 1.3 billion monthly active users, introduced a business version in India early this week. "Based on research, we realize that people WhatsApp to talk to businesses. make business messaging more convenient for folks and much more efficient for businesses," a WhatsApp spokesman said in response to ET's questions. Whatsapp Business is a different 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 like 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 targeted at improving subscriber connect which it can make use of for future monetization of its other services. The larger 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 and also make it viable for revenue generation, based on experts.
"Each technology company is competing for consumer stickiness, interaction and also time spent on the app, and in order to keep them in the app's ecosystem they are broadening themselves to become platforms. Simply being messaging applications that offer free services certainly won't be a strong revenuegeneration model," said Jayanth Kolla, founder of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.
