How Apps Like WhatsApp, WeChat Helps Make Money Whilst Providing Free Texting And Calling
Have you ever wondered the way a messaging app can make money while giving free texting and calling? WhatsApp users in India might be surprised to discover that there are far more to messaging apps than communicating. Here is how: by offering services such as digital payments, online shopping and also content.
China's WeChat is probably the best example of the great possibilities which messaging apps hold. With more than 900 million monthly active users, WeChat enables them do anything from messaging, buying grocery, hailing cabs, purchasing online food and even offline payments at restaurants - all this without needing to go to another app. Alternative Apps of services not only provide 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 larger platforms. "The 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 away from being merely a provider of communication tools chat, voice and video) to being a platform for the exchange of services, payment mechanisms as well as 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 know that people are using WhatsApp to talk to businesses.
make business messaging more convenient for individuals and much more productive for businesses," a WhatsApp spokesperson said in respond to ET's questions. Whatsapp Business is a separate app from Whatsapp Messenger, aimed mainly at giving a direct communicating platform to small enterprises, the majority of who might be using WhatsApp already.
Whilst Whatsapp has kept the service free, it could broaden it to much larger businesses with added features like analytics, from which it may well demand a usage fee at a later stage, therefore developing 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 its other services. The bigger agenda - and a more important one - for these companies is to get active users to take a lot more time on the app or services and make it viable for profit generation, according to specialists.
"Every technology company is competing for consumer stickiness, interaction as well as time invested on the app, and in order to keep them in the app's ecosystem they are broadening themselves to become platforms. Just being messaging apps that provide free services isn't going to be a solid revenuegeneration model," said Jayanth Kolla, founder of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.
China's WeChat is probably the best example of the great possibilities which messaging apps hold. With more than 900 million monthly active users, WeChat enables them do anything from messaging, buying grocery, hailing cabs, purchasing online food and even offline payments at restaurants - all this without needing to go to another app. Alternative Apps of services not only provide 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 larger platforms. "The 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 away from being merely a provider of communication tools chat, voice and video) to being a platform for the exchange of services, payment mechanisms as well as 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 know that people are using WhatsApp to talk to businesses.
make business messaging more convenient for individuals and much more productive for businesses," a WhatsApp spokesperson said in respond to ET's questions. Whatsapp Business is a separate app from Whatsapp Messenger, aimed mainly at giving a direct communicating platform to small enterprises, the majority of who might be using WhatsApp already.
Whilst Whatsapp has kept the service free, it could broaden it to much larger businesses with added features like analytics, from which it may well demand a usage fee at a later stage, therefore developing 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 its other services. The bigger agenda - and a more important one - for these companies is to get active users to take a lot more time on the app or services and make it viable for profit generation, according to specialists.
"Every technology company is competing for consumer stickiness, interaction as well as time invested on the app, and in order to keep them in the app's ecosystem they are broadening themselves to become platforms. Just being messaging apps that provide free services isn't going to be a solid revenuegeneration model," said Jayanth Kolla, founder of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.
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