Skip to footer

WhatsApp has 900 million users, but does it have a business plan?

WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum announced on Friday that the messaging service has reached 900 million monthly active users. WhatsApp doesn't have ads, and doesn't collect data from users – so how does it plan to make money?

|
WhatsApp
WhatsApp reached 900 million actively monthly users this week.

Facebook announced back in 2012 that it had reached 1 billion active users – and now Facebook’s subsidiary WhatsApp is poised to reach the same milestone.

WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum announced in a Facebook post that the messaging service now has 900 million monthly active users, up from 700 million in January 2015.

Facebook purchased WhatsApp for $19 billion last year, when WhatsApp had about half as many users as it does today. At the time, Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a press release that “WhatsApp is on a path to connect 1 billion people. The services that reach that milestone are all incredibly valuable.” The deal was one of Silicon Valley’s biggest acquisitions ever, which was why business analysts found it a little strange that WhatsApp didn’t really have a business model.

For a time, WhatsApp charged users $1 per year for the service, with the first year free, but the company dropped that model after Facebook acquired it. Both Mr. Koum and Mr. Zuckerberg have said that WhatsApp won’t carry advertising. The app itself doesn’t collect user data the way Facebook does (WhatsApp doesn’t log name, gender, or age, and it deletes messages from its servers once they’re delivered) so the company can’t get a kickback from advertisers for selling information about its subscribers.

During an earnings call in February 2014, Zuckerberg explained that once WhatsApp reaches a billion or more users, “there are many clear ways that we can monetize.” During the same call Koum said that “we’re not really concerned about monetization today,” noting that the company was focused exclusively on growth.

WhatsApp’s business model may come to resemble that of Facebook’s own Messenger service, which doesn’t carry ads but is aimed at connecting consumers with brands as well as with each other. Facebook’s new “M” concierge application also connects users with commercial services such as buying items, delivering gifts, booking appointments, and making travel arrangements. WhatsApp could eventually be rolled into that ecosystem, extending the reach of Facebook’s other brand-centered services.

WhatsApp might also revert back to a subscription model. $1 per year isn’t much, but it adds up to significant cash if the service has a billion or more users. The company might also add features to resemble other messaging apps, particularly those in Asia, that act as full-blown consumer ecosystems by letting users transfer money, order food, and even hail taxis. WhatsApp has already added new features to its core text-messaging service, including free voice calls in the vein of Skype.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to WhatsApp has 900 million users, but does it have a business plan?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2015/0904/WhatsApp-has-900-million-users-but-does-it-have-a-business-plan
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe