Messaging applications such as WhatsApp, WeChat, Skype etc are increasingly popular these days and the user base is growing at a very high rate.
But have you ever wondered how these apps are making money, despite providing cost free messaging services to their users ?
The first thing that comes to the mind is "data". Data actually is more worthy than a normal person or user thinks it to be. Users of these messaging apps like WhatsApp and Messenger which have such large userbase of over a billion users, exchange vast amount of data in form of text and other media which can be used to gain insights into the market and also analyse the behaviour of the customers. So selling data or the insights gained by using it is surely one of the ways these messaging apps can make use of.
But certainly this is not enough for these social networking giants owing to the massive investments in keeping the servers up and running 24x7 for an unparalleled user experience. This is evident from the fact that many of these like WhatsApp, Hike and Messenger are working hard to integrate other services like paying your bills, shopping etc into their currently existing chat applications.
One such messaging app that perfectly sets an example for others for new ways to earn money is WeChat. WeChat has a massive userbase of over 900 million monthly active users. WeChat users can not only use the app for chatting but they can also do tasks like buying grocery, hailing cabs, use maps, order food and even make offline payments in just a single app - WeChat !! (Shocking isn't it?)
These services not only creates an incredibly sticky userbase but also is a great business model.
WeChat has majority of it's users in China and outside China it has little influence as compared to other apps like WhatsApp and Messenger (both owned by Facebook). WhatsApp has a userbase of over 1.3 billion monthly active users.
WhatsApp has also recently announced their business app - WhatsApp Business. According to WhatsApp, they noticed by analysing their data that their app was being used by a large number of people for business communication, so they decided to launch a separate application with some business focused features ( that's the power of data analytics ). WhatsApp is also working hard to tie up with several banks for launching their payment service. Facebook has also announced that it will be turning there messenger app to a true customer care channel in 2018.
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All this shows that messaging applications like WhatsApp, WeChat etc are looking for new and solid revenue generation models while keeping their chatting services free without compromising the user experience. A single app all-in-one app would surely be a very exciting and easy-to-use solution for everyone, but what are your thoughts on this ? Tell us in the comment section down below.
Hello, my name is Shubham. I am a B.Tech Computer Science graduate. I hope you have a nice stay here!
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