Why did Facebook pay so much for a free app? Many still do not understand this purchase or the reasons for its occurrence. Even many are asking how WhatsApp is making money now . Therefore, below we will talk about this topic in more detail. The idea is that this way you can learn more about the business behind the most popular instant messaging app on the market. As this is something that has changed over time since the app was officially launched on the market.
WhatsApp payment
WhatsApp password
Years ago, before Facebook acquired it, the app was free to use for the canada telegram mobile phone number list first year . As many of you may know, because at the time you paid for it, after the first year of use was over, you had to pay the equivalent of 99 cents to renew the license for this program so that we could continue to use in the future to have our account forever.
This amount of money seems small, but if you consider that at that time WhatsApp was an application that had a massive distribution (we are talking about hundreds of millions of users), the amount in this case becomes a millionaire . This was a system the program used for a while, but it was also discontinued a few years ago. Even after this system was stopped, the program continued to bring in millions of profits, which undoubtedly caused doubts among users. How does WhatsApp make money after it stops using the payment system?
How WhatsApp makes money
A famous phrase in these cases is that when there is no product, the product is you. This is something that can be applied in the case of an instant messaging application. A lot of talk about WhatsApp is that we don't pay with money, but with the data we give the app for using it on our devices, thanks to the permissions that are granted when we use it. In this case, it will be a business model similar to the main social networks in the market.
Advertising is not what WhatsApp uses , so they don't make money from it (at least not yet). As there has long been speculation about the possibility of the app introducing stateside advertising as a way to monetize the app, it has not happened at this point and there is no indication of when it might happen. will happen if it ever actually happens. As such, it is not a source of revenue for the app, unlike other platforms such as Facebook, where ads play a defining role, both for revenue and for the data they have about users.
Information they process or have access to
During the process of acquiring WhatsApp, Facebook claimed that they had no reliable or automatic way to communicate or link WhatsApp and Facebook user accounts. Although this was something that seems to have been announced simply to get the necessary permits for the operation to get the green light from the European Commission. After the operation was completed, the social network announced that it was going to start combining this data, which caused controversy in the EU.
This topic sparked a discussion about the amount of data that WhatsApp processes . The app demonstrates its end-to-end encryption and keeps the messages we send in it private. Although little is said about the metadata they have access to and the relationship of this information to the information Facebook processes. This is one that has caused a lot of controversy as it is one of those terms of use changes that have been announced for some markets.
The privacy measures that Apple has implemented in the App Store allow us to learn more about the data that apps have access to, as in the case of WhatsApp. In the case of the messaging app, it is clear that it collects contacts from our phone, as well as commercial data when we use Facebook services , or an IP address that can be used to locate us with some precision. Also, this is an app that we grant many permissions to. The permissions it asks to work on our phones are: Microphone, Storage, Contacts, Photos/Media/Files, Phone, Location, ID, Wi-Fi info, App & Device History, SMS, Camera and User ID. device and call information. So this is information that they have access to on all the phones (about 2.000 billion worldwide) where it is used.
WhatsApp Business
WhatsApp Business
Don't forget that WhatsApp Business was officially launched in 2017 , the business version of the messaging app. The idea behind this app, at least in Facebook advertising, was for small businesses to be able to communicate with their customers, show them the products they sell or the services they offer, and answer any questions they may have while shopping . Thus, users will be able to see the products for sale, make a purchase or contact the company, all within the app itself. This gives the app more power as it was initially launched in emerging markets where many businesses now depend on this app and its services.
Also for some time there was talk about the company's plans to introduce payment functions in this version of the program . So companies will have to pay WhatsApp if they want to use some of the app's features. At the moment, there are no details on this matter, but it is possible that they will become official in the near future. This would be a way to further monetize the app.
Although it is really interesting that WhatsApp Business also gives access to a huge amount of data . The app can generate millions of dollars from its database and integration with Facebook. Again, this data is what brings the company revenue and is what they are interested in, which is why this app is being heavily promoted among companies and they are looking to use it more as a way to get more data.
WhatsApp and Facebook integration
That's the dream or plan of the company behind the social network now called Meta. This is also something that has been going on for some time, there have been attempts, but different bodies in different countries are putting up obstacles. Even the purchase of WhatsApp through Facebook This is something that is at risk in the United States, because they are trying to change it due to the monopoly position that the company obtains in this market, since they also own Instagram.
