WhatsApp and the likes

[absolomon]

So I have a business idea for an app that could mainly be used for communication with military personnel and department of defense workers. Along with messaging there would be a few other features essential to military operations. With that being said I was curious as to how apps like WhatsApp and messenger apps monetize their apps without charging people for it. I did a quick search on the forum and didn’t find much info on it. Any help would be appreciated and even feedback on this idea.

 

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[BellaPippin]

My uneducated guess is they don't. Both belong to Facebook. Conversations in WhatsApp are supposedly encrypted so that wouldn't let them pick up data to show ads I think. Messenger isn't encrypted so that could be how. But again, I don't think that Facebook has a pressing need to monetize them.

 

[Icecreamchild]

So I have a business idea for an app that could mainly be used for communication with military personnel and department of defense workers. Along with messaging there would be a few other features essential to military operations. With that being said I was curious as to how apps like WhatsApp and messenger apps monetize their apps without charging people for it. I did a quick search on the forum and didn’t find much info on it. Any help would be appreciated and even feedback on this idea.

Facebook didn't make a single dollar to date from WhatsApp.

 

[pawon]

Probably the only option you have is to directly charge for it in one way or the other (monthly, for certain upgrades, etc).

Off topic... I was thinking about Whatsapp the other day.. even with encrypted messages .. they still learn A LOT about you.

- who you have contact with
- at what time you are online
- how often you have contact with who
- where you are (based on ip)
- etc

They are probably able to draw out a map of most of the world population with all inter-connections, friends, family, business related contacts .. they can probably figure all that out quite accurately with all the meta data they collect.

Plus combine all that with Facebook data. It's scary.

 

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[absolomon]

Facebook didn't make a single dollar to date from WhatsApp.

Yes, but they bought the company for $21.8 billion

 

[socaldude]

My guess is you can find some clues in their financial disclosures/filings.

I think they used to charge like $1 a year or something like if I remember correctly.

The problem is consumers behavior here, most people don't like paying for something like this. Hell even I don't like giving out my credit card info even if its a free trial. Because then I have to call and cancel or maybe get charged something I didn't expect.

I think most of the valuation that went into WhatsApp was its potential for monetization. "Hey its has millions of users, you can add ads or subscriptions later on!"

But in my opinion WhatsApp being bought by Facebook was the worst thing that could have happened to it. I don't trust nor like Facebook and my guess is many others don't either.

I think there are huge opportunities in the privacy/niche/messaging app industry because big internet companies are not very good imo.

 

[Icecreamchild]

Yes, but they bought the company for $21.8 billion

They originally wanted to buy Snapchat. It's CEO refused. So, they ended up buying their competitor (Whatsapp) for the same amount.

 

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[George Appiah]

My uneducated guess is they don't. Both belong to Facebook. Conversations in WhatsApp are supposedly encrypted so that wouldn't let them pick up data to show ads I think.

Wrong. Sure, the conversation may be end-to-end encrypted... but who holds the encryption keys? Besides, while worry about trying to decrypt users' conversations when you have access to pretty much their entire life?

Facebook didn't make a single dollar to date from WhatsApp.

Very very wrong. Sure, they've certainly not recouped their investment yet... but they're certainly making some dough from WhatsApp. How?

1. Limited Ads: They've been test-running ads on some users' status updates for over a year now. I've personally seen this in the wild.
   
   
2. Big Data: Facebook is selling user behavioural data directly to big data brokerages, and using the data to enrich their own adverting platform. This, in particular, is the reason WhatsApp co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger gave for resigning from Facebook about 8 months before the expiration of their contracts, forfeiting $1.3B in doing so.
   
   
3. WhatsApp Messaging API, akin to Bulk SMS Marketing. I'm currently testing this via Twilio, and pricing isn't cheap: cost for US/Canada is $0.0135 per templated message sent, which is nearly twice SMS sending which costs $0.0075.