The Way In Which Apps Like WhatsApp, WeChat Helps Make Money Whilst Offering up Free Texting And Calling5182200
Ever thought the way a messaging app could make money whilst offering free texting and calling? WhatsApp users within India could be surprised to know that there is far more to messaging apps than communicating. Here's how: by providing services such as digital payments, online shopping as well as content.
China's WeChat is probably the perfect example of the vast potential that messaging apps hold. With well over Nine hundred million monthly active users, WeChat assists them to do almost everything from messaging, buying grocery, hailing cabs, ordering online food and even offline payments at restaurants - all of this without having to go to another app. These kinds of services not merely provide the company unbelievable customer stickiness, they also create a remarkable revenue model.
At the moment, WeChat's competitors outside China this includes WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber and Line are behind the curve on this front, although some have begun on the way to becoming bigger platforms. "The actual reason chat apps are widening 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 moving from being just 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 biggest messaging app on the planet with 1.3 billion every month active users, introduced a business version in India very early this week. "Based on research, we realize that people are using WhatsApp to speak with businesses. make business messaging less difficult for people and more productive 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 communication platform to small businesses, many of who might be using WhatsApp already.
While Whatsapp has maintained the service free, it may extend it to bigger businesses with added features like analytics, in which it could charge a usage fee at a later stage, thus making a revenue model, segment watchers said. This actually also is geared at raising subscriber connect that it can make use of for future monetization of their other services. The larger agenda - and a more crucial one - for these companies is to get active users to spend a lot more time on the app or services and also make it viable for profit generation, based on 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 widening themselves to become platforms. Just being messaging applications offering cost-free services will not be a strong revenuegeneration model," said Jayanth Kolla, founder of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.
