Those who have used WhatsApp for more than a year may have had to pay a dollar to continue using it. In many cases, the service was extended free of charge. In others, the app required payment. But that will not happen again: the company announced this Monday that it will be completely free for all operating systems.
How will it be financed from now on? The intention is that there are no advertising in the app either. According to what they said in the statement through which the decision was communicated, a communication service will begin to be implemented with companies that the user chooses, such as their bank or their cell phone company.
"Almost a billion people around the world today use WhatsApp to keep in touch with their friends and family. From a new dad in Indonesia to share photos with his family, to a student in Spain to check-in with his friends back home, to a doctor in Brazil to stay in touch "For many years, we have asked some people to pay a fee to use WhatsApp after their first year. approach has not worked well," they explained.
In addition, the growth of other services with similar characteristics must be taken into account, such as Facebook Messenger or Telegram, which are trying to capture a portion of the market, and the intention to reach emerging markets, where even, as they clarify, "many users do not have a debit or credit card number and were worried that they would lose access to their family and friends after their first year."
Regarding the way to keep the application profitable without charging a subscription or the appearance of advertisements, they stated their intention to look for new proposals for companies, and for banks and other entities to stop making phone calls to their clients or sending them SMS to turn to this application.
Updated on: 19/01/2016 00:00:00
Source of Information: Infobae Tecno
