Just how Apps Like WhatsApp, WeChat Helps Make Money Even while Offering up Free Texting And Calling
Ever thought about how a messaging app can make money whilst giving free texting and calling? WhatsApp users at India may be surprised to find out that there's a lot more to messaging apps than communicating. Here's how: by offering Apps Like as digital payments, online shopping and also content.
China's WeChat is just about the best example of the great opportunity which messaging apps hold. With more than Nine hundred million monthly active users, WeChat enables them do almost everything from messaging, buying grocery, hailing cabs, purchasing online food as well as offline payments at restaurants - all of this without having to go to another app. These types of services not only provide the company incredible customer stickiness, additionally they create a wonderful revenue model.
For now, WeChat's competitors outside China such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber and also Line are behind the curve on this front, although some have started on the road to becoming bigger platforms. "The actual reason chat apps are growing beyond communications is to create a sustainable 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 simply a provider of communication tools chat, voice as well as 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 early this week. "Based on research, we all know that people WhatsApp to speak to businesses.
make business messaging less difficult for folks and much more effective for businesses," a WhatsApp representative said in respond to ET's questions. Whatsapp Business is a different app from Whatsapp Messenger, aimed mainly at giving a direct communicating platform to small businesses, the majority of who might be using WhatsApp already.
Even while Whatsapp has kept the service free, it might broaden it to larger businesses with added features such as analytics, in which it could charge a usage fee at a later stage, thus creating a revenue model, segment watchers said. This also is geared at raising subscriber connect that it can leverage for future monetization of their other services. The larger agenda - and a more crucial one - for these companies is to get active users to take more time on the app or services and make it viable for income generation, according to analysts.
"Every single technology company is vying for consumer stickiness, interaction along with time spent on the app, and in order to keep them in the app's ecosystem they are broadening themselves to turn into platforms. Merely being messaging apps that provide cost-free services isn't going to be a good revenuegeneration model," said Jayanth Kolla, founder of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.
China's WeChat is just about the best example of the great opportunity which messaging apps hold. With more than Nine hundred million monthly active users, WeChat enables them do almost everything from messaging, buying grocery, hailing cabs, purchasing online food as well as offline payments at restaurants - all of this without having to go to another app. These types of services not only provide the company incredible customer stickiness, additionally they create a wonderful revenue model.
For now, WeChat's competitors outside China such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber and also Line are behind the curve on this front, although some have started on the road to becoming bigger platforms. "The actual reason chat apps are growing beyond communications is to create a sustainable 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 simply a provider of communication tools chat, voice as well as 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 early this week. "Based on research, we all know that people WhatsApp to speak to businesses.
make business messaging less difficult for folks and much more effective for businesses," a WhatsApp representative said in respond to ET's questions. Whatsapp Business is a different app from Whatsapp Messenger, aimed mainly at giving a direct communicating platform to small businesses, the majority of who might be using WhatsApp already.
Even while Whatsapp has kept the service free, it might broaden it to larger businesses with added features such as analytics, in which it could charge a usage fee at a later stage, thus creating a revenue model, segment watchers said. This also is geared at raising subscriber connect that it can leverage for future monetization of their other services. The larger agenda - and a more crucial one - for these companies is to get active users to take more time on the app or services and make it viable for income generation, according to analysts.
"Every single technology company is vying for consumer stickiness, interaction along with time spent on the app, and in order to keep them in the app's ecosystem they are broadening themselves to turn into platforms. Merely being messaging apps that provide cost-free services isn't going to be a good revenuegeneration model," said Jayanth Kolla, founder of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.
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