WhatsApp is undoubtedly the most used messaging app in the world. In fact, after its birth, it followed the natural evolution of users' habits, managing to become the most practical method for messaging or sending multimedia content to friends and relatives. However, one question often assails users like you: how to earn whatsapp?
The application is in fact downloadable for free from the respective stores and does not have subscription costs for users. Simply put, with just the help of a data plan, you can send unlimited messages and other content around the world. If you too then are wondering how does whatsapp generate profits, in this article you will find the answer you are looking for.
How WhatsApp earns
Know how WhatsApp makes money is a hotly debated topic, both by industry experts and other users like you. In fact, the instant messaging application is free, does not include advertising and (at least in theory) does not sell your data. So how is it possible that an infrastructure of this magnitude can continue to exist?
The answer is perhaps simpler than you think. To know it, however, you will have to wait a few more minutes. In fact, I will shortly tell you briefly about the history of WhatsApp, a really interesting topic. In the following paragraphs, I will finally reveal where WhatsApp's profits come from and what the evolution of the service will be in the near future.
Index
How WhatsApp was born
Before finding out how WhatsApp earns, it is necessary to retrace its origins. Whatsapp launched its first stirrings in the "far" 2009, when the homonymous company was founded by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, two former employees of Yahoo. The idea came to the founders after the purchase of an iPhone, which made them realize the enormous potential that applications would have unleashed in the immediate future. However, the start was not the best: several attempts failed and the application kept crashing, leading Brian and Jan to consider abandoning the project.
It was Apple itself that gave new hope to young entrepreneurs which, in June 2009, introduced push notifications on iOS, a feature that was immediately integrated into WhatsApp with version 2.0. The official launch on the App Store is dated November 2009 and from that moment on, the success has been truly unstoppable.
From now on, the numbers crunched have been truly impressive: in December 2009 the ability to send photos was added to WhatsApp, a function still widely used by users. In early 2011, after only two years of activity, WhatsApp became one of the 20 most downloaded applications from the App Store. While in April, Sequoia Capital bought 15% of the company for the sum of 8 million Dollars.
At the end of 2013, this quietly born service had a record 400 million active users and more than 50 employees. And until 2016, the year in which the messaging service became free, there was no need to wonder how WhatsApp earns money, given that the app was paid for. So let's see how they solved the matter.
Despite the many criticisms received by Mark Zuckerberg, the growth of WhatsApp has continued in the best way, leading then to the current product that you are surely using on your Android smartphone or iPhone. The numbers speak for themselves: today more than 1.5 billion users are active every month on WhatsApp, confirming the clearly positive trend, only partially affected by rivals, first of all Telegram.
However, ever since the app went free, there has always been one problem to fix: how to make whatsapp profitable without charging the end user. Read on to understand how the app works and how it can generate revenue.
How WhatsApp works
Il functioning of WhatsApp it's really simple. In fact, to use this messaging service, you only need:
- Uno smartphone Android o iOS
- An active SIM registered in your name
- A 3G/4G/4.5G mobile data plan or WiFi connection
Once these three elements are combined, use Whatsapp it really is child's play. Just download the application for Android or iOS, register your phone number and wait for the confirmation SMS message with the code to enter. Once inside the application, if you grant read permissions for contacts, all your friends who already use WhatsApp will be added in the application.
The features of WhatsApp are instead more articulated and have undergone additions and transformations over the years, not always frowned upon by the general public. The main purpose of WhatsApp is to send and receive text messages or multimedia content. This happens via the internet and a number of servers around the world. In fact, once you leave your smartphone, the message you sent is directed to the right recipient via a server. This is the reason for the malfunctions that occasionally affect the service, making it impossible to send or receive messages.
For the rest however, the philosophy of WhatsApp is still quite faithful to the original version, with the aim of connecting people all over the world without having to spend anything. That's why many people wonder how WhatsApp makes money. So let's dispel this myth in the next point of the guide.
How WhatsApp makes money
WhatsApp is perhaps the most used free application in the world. In reality it hasn't always been like this. In fact, until 2013, iOS users, to download WhatsApp from the store, had to pay a one-off fee of €1,00. Subsequently, payment upon download was eliminated, introducing a formula that involved some sort of annual subscription: the price was €1,00 per iPhone and €0,89 for device owners Android.
Since 2016, to the immense joy of all users, the application has become completely Delivery to Italy takes one or two business days, at no cost either before download or during the period of use. That's why now you no longer have to believe those who tell you to "renew expired WhatsApp".
Even the advertising model, used by many free applications, which include ads during use, has still remained outside the service. The first rule you must remember, however, is that, at least in these cases, nothing is free. THE earnings of WhatsApp they are in fact estimated around 5 billion dollars a year, with an average revenue per user of about $20. So where does this money come from? In reality there are no official answers on this issue but, at least in recent times, some not exactly positive hypotheses have begun to appear in the journalistic landscape.
WhatsApp and privacy
Although in this period the controversy is going quiet compared to the initial bang, the fear of users and industry analysts is that the same method is applied to Whatsapp. In fact, the application and its cloud backups contain data of all kinds, concerning billions of users like you. Although the company has denied these rumors, in the background the suspicions have remained alive. Indeed, it would be really profitable for WhatsApp to be able to sell user information to third-party companies, real gold mines when it comes to marketing, especially digital.
It should also be noted that, at present, there is no evidence which support this thesis. This means that the rumors remain only rumors and certainly cannot be used as a yardstick on the work of WhatsApp.
How advertising works on WhatsApp
As I specified before, for now, WhatsApp does not use any advertising method within its application. However, this does not mean that this hypothesis has never been taken into consideration. In fact, for some years now, some rumors have been talking about the introduction of a advertisement system within the service, making it de facto freemium.
Simply put, the application would still be free for everyone, but it would start generating revenue by introducing dealer in the form of banners or short videos. The first stage of this journey should begin as early as 2019 when, within the whatsapp statuses, sponsored advertisements should be introduced.
This first step should be minimally invasive, as the format will be completely identical to that of WhatsApp stories. However, it is not clear if this method will also be extended to the rest of the application, or if it will remain the only intervention to be carried out. What is clear however is that, in the current state of affairs, how WhatsApp earns is still a mystery.
Author
Lorenzo Renzetti
I'm a blogger and IT communicator with a passion for information technology and social networking services. I create content aimed at improving the user experience on multi-platforms, protecting privacy and security.
