Just how Apps Like WhatsApp, WeChat May Make Money Even while Offering Free Texting And Calling7680780

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Have you ever wondered how a messaging app can make money whilst offering free texting and calling? WhatsApp users within India might be surprised to find out there is a lot more to messaging apps than communicating. Here's how: by offering services for example digital payments, online shopping and also content.

China's WeChat is probably the ultimate example of the large possibilities which messaging apps hold. With more than 900 million monthly active users, WeChat helps them do anything from messaging, purchasing grocery, hailing cabs, ordering online food and also offline payments at restaurants - all of this without having to go to another app. These types of services not merely offer the company outstanding customer stickiness, in addition they create a exceptional revenue model.

Right now, WeChat's opponents outside China including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber as well as Line are behind the curve on this front, even though some have begun on the road to becoming larger platforms. "The reason chat apps are growing 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 merely a provider of communication tools chat, voice as well as video) to being a platform for the exchange of services, payment mechanisms as well as content consumption." WhatsApp, the biggest messaging app in the world with 1.3 billion monthly active users, introduced a business version in India early on this week. "Based on research, we know that people are using WhatsApp to speak with businesses. make business messaging more convenient for folks and more efficient 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 communicating platform to small businesses, a lot of who might be using WhatsApp already.

While Whatsapp has kept the service free, it may expand it to much larger businesses with added features like analytics, from which it may well charge a usage fee at a later stage, hence making a revenue model, segment watchers said. This actually also is targeted at improving subscriber connect that it can leverage for future monetization of its other services. The bigger agenda - and a more important one - for these businesses is to get active users to take more time on the app or services and make it viable for profit generation, based on specialists.

"Every technology company is competing for consumer stickiness, interaction and also time invested on the app, and in order to keep them within the app's ecosystem they're broadening themselves to turn into platforms. Merely being messaging applications that provide cost-free services is not going to be a good revenuegeneration model," said Jayanth Kolla, founder of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.

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