How Whatsapp Make Money? Even When its Free!

WhatsApp is especially popular with end users who do not have unlimited text messaging. In addition to basic messaging, WhatsApp provides group chat and location sharing options.

Technically speaking, WhatsApp uses a customized version of the open standard Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). WhatsApp Inc. was founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, both veterans of Yahoo!  

The most asking question, asked from us is 'How Whatsapp Make money even when its FREE?'

So we start to finding and researching about your question and we found its some way to earn. This information might not fully 100% accurate but it is genuine...

Let's start...

$1 at a time

The short answer is $1 at a time. In some countries, the app costs about $1 to download; in others, the first year is free but, each subsequent year costs $1. With over 700 million active users and about 1 million new users per day, yearly revenue can be estimated at $700 million per year.

Facebook’s Form 10-Q admits that the company “[monetizes] WhatsApp in only a very limited fashion, and [they] may not be successful in [their] efforts to generate meaningful revenue from WhatsApp over the long term.” So while the company doesn’t currently have ads or other forms of income, their position could change over time.

Database Management

According to our speculation, the revenue generation for Whatsapp is primarily through database management. All the conversations on Whatsapp are backed up on Whatsapp servers constantly. Our conversations reflect our interests, likes, dislikes and majorly depicts our preferences. This information is invaluable to big firms where relevant tailor made products can be offered after data sorting

Subscription Fee

Whatsapp allows it’s user to enjoy the services for free for first year. However, after that it charges $0.99 for continued service. But till date, I have not heard of a single person who has paid for this service. Interestingly, it tends to extend the free service period every time a user reaches close to the expiry date.
So this method of revenue generation that seems like the only visible revenue generation scheme is actually not generating the revenue.

App Purchases

Just like other products, apps earn money when they are purchased. $.99 per purchase might not sound like a whole lot, but it adds up (Angry Birds sells for $.99, just saying). Then of course you look at an app like Minecraft: Pocket Edition that sells for $6.99 and made $1 million in iOS App Store revenue—on Christmas day alone.
For WhatsApp specifically, the app costs about $1 to download…but that price tag is only present in certain countries. 

Other users around the globe actually get to experience the app for free for year one, but then pay $1 for each year following.

The “Freemium” Model

Even “free apps” or those that are free to download can still make money, and lots of it. This freemium model allows users to download the app without charge, but will then charge for extra features, lives, power-ups, and other in-game resources. Think Candy Crush and Clash of Clans.

Advertisements

You’ve probably noticed advertisements on your favorite apps. (How can you ignore them?) Just like ads on social networks, in magazines, on TV, etc. companies pay for their products and services to be seen within mobile apps. While WhatsApp hasn’t yet cashed in on this tactic, other SMS apps, like WeChat, which is well known in China, has both apps and online games. With only 440 million users, WeChat turned in $924 million in revenue in 2014’s third quarter.

All of this considered, there is one big thing missing. I mean, WhatsApp earns $1 per download on iOS and $1 per year on other platforms (and not even for every user). Even with a large user base, the company’s revenue might only be hundreds of millions of dollars. Thus, there is a large, unfilled gap between hundreds of millions and $19 billion.


That's all... These all are the some earning ways by which currently Whatsapp is earning but as we told before that it might not 100% right but this is our responsibility to tell you this.

Thanks for reading...