The world is amazing. You would like to capture every beautiful moment in your life, no matter whether it could be your graduation day or birthday, you want to capture the memories and preserve it forever. Let’s consider, you visit the place for the first time and you ask your friend to capture some good pictures of you at that place.
Hey!!! Whatsapp my pictures once you get home. This could be probably the most common dialogue everybody says. WhatsApp is one of the popular applications to share images, videos and other visual content.
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What is WhatsApp?
WhatsApp is the free and popular messaging application developed by “Jan Koum” and “Brian Acton” launched in 2009. The application is available for free. It has become incredibly popular from the beginning as the application offers fantastic features and provides free service. WhatsApp is available for mobile and desktop users.
The primary reason that makes WhatsApp appealing is it works on multiple operating systems and phones. Free international calling, easy chatting, security, and engaging globally are few reasons to use WhatsApp.
There is a lot of business buzz about WhatApp, and with a great reason. WhatsApp is the go-to application for more than 1.6 billion users across the world. The instant application is a simple and convenient method to chat, share photos, send documents and perform video calls anywhere at any time.
Unbelievable WhatsApp stats in 2020
- Over 2 billion active users across the world
- The application was downloaded by more than 96 million times till Feb 2020
- 1.6 billion users access the application every month
- The application is available in over 180 countries and 60 languages
- 65 billion messages are transferred every day on WhatsApp
- 53% of users are from the United States
- 1 in every 5 adults use WhatsApp in the US
- Over 5 million businesses are using WhatsApp Business
WhatsApp is available for free and there are advertisements that are encouraged on the app. The million-dollar question is how does WhatsApp make money? What is WhatsApp operational model?
Let’s discuss now,
How does WhatsApp make money?
As already mentioned, WhatsApp is an ad-free application, it doesn’t make money through advertisements. WhatsApp founder just hated to run advertisements. Because they want to create an ad-free application that purely focuses on designing excellent user experience and interface.
They want to build an application for the users not for business to display ads. But, it’s important to sustain the competition. They need to pay the bills. Therefore they have come up with the paid version of WhatsApp that charges $1 every year from their users.
Initial WhatsApp revenue generation strategy
It all started with a group of friends. The ex-Yahoo friends have gathered $250,000 as an initial fund. At the next stage, the funding was provided by “Sequoia Capital”, this company has invested $60 million in WhatsApp Inc. This was the primary source of income for WhatsApp team members. At that time, there are around 50 WhatsApp staff members. Also, the primary expenses is sending a one-time verification code to users.
Therefore, WhatsApp has waved off the subscription fee like $1 per year for every user.
This strategy was implemented by the founders of WhatsApp. Building an effective network at the beginning and money later, it also bought fruitful results for WhatsApp founders. Everything is going well. Facebook is impressed with the instant messaging application and dedication to acquire WhatsApp. Finally, WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook CEO “Mark Zuckerberg” in February 2014. Facebook paid $19 billion and WhatsApp employees are moved as Facebook employees.
WhatsApp operational model
Facebook had acquired WhatsApp for 19 billion dollars in 2014. Many thanks to Facebook because it has given new wings to WhatsApp. Facebook has opened new doors to make money through WhatsApp. Facebook has introduced a few strategic plans to earn profits with the WhatsApp application.
WhatsApp Business
Good news for all the business entrepreneurs. One of the strategic plans of Facebook is helping businesses through WhatsApp and make profits. It has launched a “WhatsApp Business Application”. If you’re running a business, download the WhatsApp Business on your device and create business profit. Also, you can mention your website, Facebook or other important links. Business can interact with customers anywhere at any time. Also, you can set up an autoresponder, sounds amazing right!!! Currently, WhatsApp Business application is available for free. A small and large business can download and use it for business purposes.
WhatsApp for Business API
Facebook has extended its functionality by introducing “WhatsApp Business API” as the first revenue generation product. The WhatsApp API works amazingly for businesses. Small and large businesses can integrate “WhatsApp for Business” with their currency system. The API will reach out to potential customers via notification, alerts and more.
Businesses are worried about spam. WhatsApp Business API will prevent spam such as displaying ads. Also, no user can send a message in the group. Businesses can send a text to the users who have texted first. The API will send automatic shipping, reminders, confirmations, event tickets and other services to their potential customers. Many popular businesses such as Booking.com and Wish are working successfully on WhatsApp API.
How does WhatsApp make money through API?
WhatsApp has introduced a revenue generation strategy plan for WhatsApp Business API. Let’s keep the things straightforward, WhatsApp charges businesses for late or slow replies for their users.
As mentioned earlier, businesses can send messages to their users for free. This option is valid for one day i.e 24 hours. Businesses need to pay for every message that has been sent after 24 hours to the users. Though the fee is fixed, it may vary from one country to another. Many businesses are choosing to respond to the customers manually using few applications such as Twilio, Zendesk and more.
Many people might be thinking that a business uses these applications to respond to their customers. Though the technique sounds simple, dealing with billions of customers can be difficult. Keep a note, you need to have a new number to install the WhatsApp Business API, you cannot use an existing number.
Payments service
Sending and receiving money can be a hassle as there are frauds and data thefts are increasing every day. The company has launched “WhatsApp Pay” to send or receive money without leaving the platform. WhatsApp Pay is a “UPI-Based Payments Service” that allows people to transfer payments through WhatsApp chat screen. All you need to click on the “Attachment icon” and choose the “Payment” option.
Future revenue generation strategy
So far we have discussed the initial and current WhatsApp business model. Now let’s discuss the future plans of WhatsApp
Copy Snapchat revenue model
WhatsApp is planning to adopt a few features from Snapchat such as disappearing the messages from the chat screen. This feature is considered as important in the current marketing industry. Also, it is planning to steal the customers of Snapchat and increase their customer base. As WhatsApp is planning to copy Snapchat’s business model, the company is ready to promote its application.
Display advertisements
According to “The Economic Times” reports, WhatsApp is planning to display a targeted advertisement on the user’s status section of the application. This way, users can generate good profits by running ads and promoting other business products or services.
Wrapping up
Is there anybody who doesn’t have WhatsApp on their mobile? Of Course nobody right. The application is best to connect with dear ones across the world. Currently, there are 2 billion active users from over 180 countries on WhatsApp are enjoying flexible features of the application. As discussed, WhatsApp is an instant messaging application available for free on Google Play Store and App Store. WhatsApp doesn’t run any advertisements on its platform as the founders don’t want to ruin the user experience. After Facebook acquired WhatsApp, the application has opened to new doors to generate revenue. WhatsApp is earning $1 per year for every download. Also, WhatsApp Business API is also generating good revenue when the business sends messages after 24 hours to their customers. The charges may be fixed. But, it may be different from one country to another. According to the analysis, these could be future revenue strategies. WhatsApp is planning to copy Snapchat’s chat earning model. Also, the application will run advertisements to promote other business to increase their revenue.
