Do you remember the days where long-distance calls are time-consuming and expensive? Yes!!! In fact, those days were struggling moments for a few people. Parents can’t often communicate with their children who reside in another country as roaming charges are almost touching the sky. If you connect to your long-distance bestie and talk for an hour, you would soon get a mini-heartache looking at the roaming charge. Though these roaming charges may vary from one country to another.
Say big thanks to WhatsApp!!! People can communicate with their dear ones across the world through WhatsApp. All they require is an internet connection.
Introduction
WhatsApp was founded by “Brian Acton” and “Jan Koum” in 2009. Facebook acquired WhatsApp messenger in 2014 for $19 billion. WhatsApp is one of the popular instant messaging applications across the globe. It allows users to communicate through text, image, audio, gif or video. No matter whether you stay in the UK or US, you can connect with your dear one in real-time and share media files. WhatsApp messaging application works on every device. All you need to have internet-connected to mobile, tablet or desktop. With WhatsApp Web, you can text right from your desktop.
There are several excellent features integrated into WhatsApp. The application is available free on Play Store and App Store and doesn’t run commercial ads on the application. Also, doesn’t promote products or services.
How does WhatsApp Make Money?
WhatsApp doesn’t earn money either through advertisements or downloading the application. WhatsApp founder doesn’t encourage commercial ads. In fact, they hate promoting other products on their application. Therefore, they’ve created WhatsApp as an ad-free platform. Their team focus on providing great user interface and experience.
WhatsApp founders have introduced an instant messaging application to make the communication easier, not for other business to display their advertisements. On the other hand, they need to pay a salary for their team and handle other business costs. Hence they have introduced a WhatsApp paid version. User needs to charge $1 per year. This way, WhatsApp can pay their bills.
As we already discussed, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014. This has opened new ways to generate revenue. After the acquisition, WhatsApp has introduced various strategic plans to make money.
Let’s discuss the WhatsApp revenue model in detail
WhatsApp Business
Facebook introduces WhatsApp Business to help small and large business. It enables business owners to have their presence on WhatsApp. An entrepreneur can build a company profile within a few simple clicks. It is the best way to communicate effectively with customers and grow your business. Users can run personal WhatsApp and business WhatsApp on a similar device. A business owner can mention their links – official website, social media profiles, set up autoresponders and more.
Currently, WhatsApp Business is available for free. Also, no download charges are applicable. Facebook may charge for WhatsApp Business in the coming years.
WhatsApp for Business API
Facebook is now concentrating to generate income with WhatsApp. Therefore it has extended its enterprise functionality by introducing revenue-generating product – “WhatsApp Business API”. It’s is the first product to make money.
WhatsApp Business API is a powerful, secure, fast and reliable approach for businesses to reach their customers across the world. Customers can receive the notification instantly and solve their queries in no time. There may be few people who can harm the business, therefore WhatsApp Business API disables to receive messages from outside people. A business owner can only send messages to their customers. The API has the ability to help business owners while coding, sending product shipping updates to customers, appointment reminders or handles customers queries. Also, there are few popular companies such as Booking.com and Wish who are generating great revenue on WhatsApp Business API.
Now, let’s discuss how does WhatsApp make money through Business API?
WhatsApp has introduced a straightforward and strategic revenue-generating method for Business API. WhatsApp does charges!!! A business owner will be charged for slow or late replies. It means the business owner should respond to customer messages within less than 24 hours. There will be no charges applied when businesses respond to users’ messages. In case, if businesses respond after 24 hours, they need to pay for the send message. Though the charge is fixed, it may vary from one country to another. Since there are millions of users on WhatsApp – dealing with airline tickets, travel tickets and movie tickets. Besides, these are generating better revenue for WhatsApp.
WhatsApp Payments
Have you ever noticed the payment option on your WhatsApp? If your answer is NO, then you’re wasting your time.
WhatsApp payment was rolled out in the year 2018. WhatsApp Pay is a popular UPI based payment service. It allows users to send or receive the money within the WhatsApp. Users can transfer funds through WhatsApp chat. All they need to click on “Attachment” icon and choose the payment option available. A list of bank names will be available, select your bank and verify through SMS. Also, these SMS charges will be applied whenever the user sends an SMS from their mobile for authentication.
In addition to transferring the funds to WhatsApp contacts, users can also send money through UPI ID, QR code, etc. Whenever a transaction processed through WhatsApp, your bank will pay a certain percentage to WhatsApp.
Database Management
The data management scheme is speculation. Currently, there are over 2 billion WhatsApp users around the world. The primary revenue can be generated through database management. Every day, millions of people interact personally and professionally on WhatsApp. These conversations are backed up on the WhatsApp servers accordingly. These conversations hold a lot of information – interest, dislike, likes, preferences and more. Big companies are ready to pay handsome money for user information.
Bottom line
WhatsApp is the popular messaging application and has the highest number of users that other apps. People wonder, how does WhatsApp make money as they cannot find ads running on WhatsApp. PayPal application is available for free on Google PlayStore and App Store. People can send and receive text, photos, videos and more. There are few countries paying $1 on a yearly subscription. Also, WhatsApp is earning money through WhatsApp Business API and WhatsApp pay. Currently, WhatsApp doesn’t promote ads on their platform, maybe in future WhatsApp run ads to make money.
