How come WhatsApp is free?

[Thankyou4calling]

I use it, seems great to me yet how can it be provided free?

Am I missing something?

Thanks

[BobToc]

They’re playing the (very) long game

https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/19/whatsapp-will-mo...

[alorotom]

The monetisation of it still exists in some countries I believe but being backed / owned by FB makes it pretty stable financially

[Jimmy Recard]

It wouldn’t get the sheer market share it has if it wasn’t free, and that’s where the value in it lies

[okgo]

It probably also is providing a huge amount of data to FB to use for various things.

Data is everything in the digital ad world

[cat with a hat]

okgo said:

It probably also is providing a huge amount of data to FB to use for various things.

Data is everything in the digital ad world

Corrected for accuracy.

[GetCarter]

Nothing is free.

[Yipper]

WhatsApp follows the standard app-industry practice, which is to grow free eyeballs today and try to fleece them for money tomorrow.

WhatsApp currently has 1.3 billion active unique-users worldwide. If those users can be made to spend just £4 a year, you've got an easy £5b revenue in your back pocket.

WhatsApp makes big financial losses right now, but they're hoping in-app paid-content, freemium games, pay-extra stickers, free adverts, a person-to-person payment system (like WeChat WePay in China), and possibly even a new crypto-currency (like Bitcoin) will dig them out of a hole by the 2020s... Time will tell if that works.

[pokethepope]

BobToc said:

They’re playing the (very) long game

https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/19/whatsapp-will-mo...

That article is four old. They've introduced ads to Facebook Messenger in the meantime, so wouldn't be at all surprised if ads are introdiced to WhatsApp at some point in the near future.

[JonChalk]

pokethepope said:

That article is four old. They've introduced ads to Facebook Messenger in the meantime, so wouldn't be at all surprised if ads are introdiced to WhatsApp at some point in the near future.

.....at which point some new app will emerge on the same free-to-grow-then-monetise business model; I (& rest of world) will switch to that for a few years of uninterrupted messaging, and then we'll start again.

[frisbee]

1) Collect underpants
2) Unknown
3) Profit

[bingybongy]

Me and my mates have all swapped to Telegram. It syncs with tablet and PC.
Other than that seems identical to WhatsApp.

[craigjm]

Before it was taken over by Facebook they used to give you the first year free and then charge you $1 a year. The data is being mined these days which is where the value is.

[anonymous-user]

craigjm said:

Before it was taken over by Facebook they used to give you the first year free and then charge you $1 a year. The data is being mined these days which is where the value is.

i.e. You are the product.

[ZesPak]

gottans said:

craigjm said:

Before it was taken over by Facebook they used to give you the first year free and then charge you $1 a year. The data is being mined these days which is where the value is.

i.e. You are the product.

For the content of the messages, isn't there end-to-end encryption?

[hyphen]

okgo said:

It probably also is providing a huge amount of data to FB to use for various things.

Data is everything in the digital ad world

To the point that FB lied to get their hands on Whatsapp and were happy to pay a fine for it later http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-1369_en...

And the silly social app addicted mugs keep handing it over willingly.

[Yipper]

hyphen said:

okgo said:

It probably also is providing a huge amount of data to FB to use for various things.

Data is everything in the digital ad world

To the point that FB lied to get their hands on Whatsapp and were happy to pay a fine for it later http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-1369_en...

And the silly social app addicted mugs keep handing it over willingly.

PH is a social network.