How WhatsApp makes money?

Hardly any app can be found on as many smartphones as WhatsApp. The application can be used free of charge. This begs the question of how the makers of WhatsApp make any money at all?

In the early years, an annual or one-off lifetime fee had to be paid to use WhatsApp. At the beginning of 2016, it switched to a completely free model. Are there any sources of income for the WhatsApp makers?

Facebook doesn’t make any money from WhatsApp

For the inventors of WhatsApp, Jan Koum and Brian Acton, the development of the messenger has paid off. WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014. Both have since become multi-millionaires. To date, Facebook has not changed the concept of WhatsApp, so the application will still be completely free in 2022. The situation is different with Telegram, for example, where, after a long free phase, they are now offering some special features for a fee with “Telegram Premium”.

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There are always rumors that this could change with WhatsApp in the future. So what does Facebook currently have from WhatsApp?

• The takeover of WhatsApp cost Facebook almost 20 billion US dollars. While these aren’t peanuts, they’re not a particularly risky investment for Facebook either.
• WhatsApp is still making losses.
• With the investment, however, Facebook prevents the massive user base from falling into the hands of a direct competitor. WhatsApp will also be used by more users in 2022 than the in-house Facebook messenger. So you accept a minus to prevent Google, Microsoft or another online giant from benefiting from the popular messenger.
• With the large amount of data, the parent company also gets extensive data in its hands. This includes, for example, contacts, location data and other personal information.

Revenue from advertising and additional services?

The money tap for Facebook in WhatsApp could soon be turned on properly. There have been rumors for a long time that advertising will be displayed in the messenger app. What the ads will look like is not yet known. Chats may remain ad-free while ads appear in the refreshed status area. Founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton have always spoken out against advertising in the app, but have since left the company.

In addition to advertising revenue, Facebook also wants to make money through companies. Corporate customers should be able to use the service for a fee to get in touch with customers. It would be conceivable, for example, to use it in support. Online retailers could advertise their own offers in this way. With WhatsApp for Business, there is already an independent application that goes in this direction and is primarily aimed at smaller companies. Some functions can only be used for a fee.

It is also conceivable that WhatsApp will be expanded to include additional services that will be subject to a fee. The largest messenger in China, WeChat, is leading the way. Initially there was only a chat function here, but WeChat is now an all-rounder app that users can use to order taxis, book trips or transfer money, for example. WeChat receives revenue from these services.

Conclusion: With its completely free model, Facebook is still only relying on user growth. It remains to be seen how the approximately 1.5 billion users of the service can be monetized.

Do you accept ads on WhatsApp? Would you prefer a paid version that remains ad-free? Or is a WhatsApp with advertising a complete “no-go” for you?

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