How Does WhatsApp Earn Money | WhatsApp Business


How WhatsApp earn money??? 👈 This question has been bothering me since I joined a digital marketing firm. Never got a chance to actually find the source but finally had the time to explore this a weekend and hence writing a blog so that all of us will know the How's and What's of Whatsapp's earning model. 

As an alternative to costly SMS services, WhatsApp was created in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum who are ex-yahoo employees. The app allows users to download their contact book and message at no cost to anyone who has the app-enabled. It is available for desktops, iPhones and Android devices.

Facebook Inc. acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion in February 2014 after five years of operation when it had a user base of $400 million.

So How Exactly Does WhatsApp Earn Money?💰💰💰

WhatsApp does not generate revenue through ads, unlike most other apps. As an ad-free platform, WhatsApp was built with a focus on providing better user experience and the founders believed that advertising greatly damages the user experience.

Founders wanted to develop an instant messaging network for users and not for advertising to be put by big businesses. But they had to pay their bills at the same time, too. Then they came up with the paid version of the application where they were charging users an annual fee of $1 and this is only applicable in some countries.

Before 2013 those on the iPhone had to pay $1 to download and use the app as a one-time fee.

It was then agreed to place iPhone and Android users on the same level, making the software free for all for the first year, irrespective of the platform, and then $1 a year.

But later in 2016, WhatsApp announced in a blog post that they will be terminating this subscription model.


For Fun, let’s try to calculate monthly revenue if WhatsApp starts advertising! 

· For starters, let’s say that the number of active monthly users is about 1 billion.

· In a timespan of a month, assuming a user will click on 5 ads

· Averaging that 1 click equals 50Rs in value

· So, 1 billion users * 5 ads = 5 billion clicks

· Assuming 1 click values approx. 1 dollar, then 5 billion clicks * 1 dollar = 
5 billion dollars/month 

Now we know how massively WhatsApp will earn if it starts advertising!!! 😱

Future revenue plans of WhatsApp?

The purpose behind Facebook's WhatsApp acquisition is fairly obvious; they will collect the humongous amount of data from its users, such as conversation patterns, user behavioural information, our live location data and pattern, etc.

Facebook will use this knowledge to have even better-targeted ads.

With location tracking data, 65 billion messages sent/received every day, and accessibility to the full contact lists of users, Facebook has access to a lot of personal information which is all compiled and stored on its servers.

Although, Mark Zuckerberg has previously confirmed that this information would not be used in Facebook advertisements to enhance consumer targeting unless a user changes their settings in order to not share information with Facebook. (If you don’t want Facebook accessing your chats, change the settings right now)

Main goal: To increase global market penetration and making a ubiquitous and undefeatable Application!

WhatsApp for Business? 

WhatsApp Business is free to download the app that was built with the small business owner in mind. We can create a catalogue to showcase our products and services. We get an opportunity to connect with our customers easily by using tools to automate, sort and quickly respond to messages. Here companies can create a business profile with helpful information for your customers, like your address, business description, email address, and website.

 
WhatsApp can also help medium and large businesses provide customer support and deliver important notifications to customers.

So, go ahead and explore this new WhatsApp venture!

This is bizarre yet brilliant  WhatsApp has started to charge the business owners who reply late to their customer’s! 

Yes, that’s true. This implies that businesses will be able to reply to consumers free for 24 hours, but WhatsApp will charge them if they reply late than the given timeline. These charges differ from country to country.

What is Tipsy Marketer’s speculation on WhatsApp’s revenue generation?

We all know that our WhatsApp chats are backed up at 2am, right? So, our theory is database mining and management is the biggest revenue generator for WhatsApp. They say, “Data is the new oil”, hence big brands are willing to pay any cost for user data which helps them in understanding (some may call it data privacy violation) user behaviour, interests, locations, likes, etc.

But this is merely a theory!


Bonus 👉 5 Amazing Facts about WhatsApp!

1. Whatsapp is completely banned in China after it was acquired by Facebook

2. In 2015, ISIS was using WhatsApp to plan terrorist attacks.

3. Whatsapp is available in more than 180 countries and 60 different languages.

4. WhatsApp has 2 billion of userbase globally


    
5. Initially WhatsApp had only 55 employees!

To conclude:

With only room to expand, WhatsApp has become one of the world's most popular messaging services with over 2 billion users as of February 2020. The truth is that the app has an increasing revenue stream with infinite possibilities that will enable it to bring in more earnings over time.

Facebook must have some brilliant strategy to monetize this app in near future, without it, why would one invest $19 billion in an app?

Riddle us this: 

We all use Google for every tiny lil task, but it is free for all. 

How do you think Google earns money? 


Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below👇

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Comments

  1. In 21 Century data is money. If you search for movie tickets or new room on google. Google transfers that data to its sister companies like YouTube, Admob, etc. So when next time you are going to use YouTube or play the game on android you will get related advertisements. With your behavioral pattern, gender, age, location information it became easy to manipulate you. 

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