How are the Messaging Apps Earning Money

Instant messaging apps... these apps are your companion for 24 hours. The most popular mode of communication, miscommunication and a lot more than communications are these apps. With free messaging, video calling and voice calling services, these instant messaging apps have less depleted the form of text messaging through the SMS packs of yesteryears. It seems a bygone era and all thanks to these free messaging apps.  

The apps are not limiting themselves to sharing messages in forms of text, images, audios or videos. The potential of these apps is vast. In China, WeChat is used by 900 million users who are all active users. With the apps, they are not only messaging but also buying groceries, booking cabs, ordering food online and even paying bills offline in restaurants. Here the idea is to compile all the daily requirements in one app without the need of shifting to various apps. WeChat has a ton of amusements delivered by Tencent which clients purchase to have a lot of fun. WeChat encourages disconnected organizations to utilize an online stage to offer things for which Tencent's online installments stage Weixin, wins a commission from the deals.

Experts put light on the fact that these apps are a great way of earning revenue. There have been reports of the competitors of WeChat following the same path of earning revenue. Thus the users might expect a change in the curve of apps like Line, Viber, Skype, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp. Neha Dharia, one of the senior analysts of London-based research firm Ovum said, “The very reason chat apps are expanding beyond communications is to create a sustainable monetization strategy.” She also mentioned that the chatting apps are not mere communication tools. These are transforming to become platforms where you can exchange services, get access to various forms of content and will also be following the payment mechanism.

As per reports, there is a chance of introducing a business version to one of the most popular apps, WhatsApp. It has got an active 1.3 billion users all over the world. A research was conducted on the basis of which it has been found out that people are using the WhatsApp messaging for business purpose. The spokesperson for WhatsApp informed that they want to make it convenient for the people who are using it for business purposes. As per reports, this would be a different app that is to be downloaded through which direct communication could be possible for small business who wants a platform.

As you know these apps are free and the new business app will also be free. But unlike the regular ones, there will be some special features like analytics that can only be unlocked after a payment of a nominal fee. Reports say that this payment is somewhat of a future plan for creating a revenue model. The analysts say that the main idea is to bring in more users and make users spend more time in the services and that would be a viable option for revenue generation. Jayanth Kolla, founder of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst said, “Every technology company is vying for consumer stickiness, interaction and time spent on the app, and in order to keep them within the app’s ecosystem they’re broadening themselves to become platforms. Just being messaging apps that offer free services is not going to be a strong revenue generation model.”

There have been reports of this app gearing up to make ties with the bank to make the platform suitable for digital payments. With these endeavors, there will be a seamless payment experience for users and they will also trust the app and get engaged with the platform more. As per experts adding up services like entertainment, marketplaces, cab-hailing will make the way for revenues along with messaging.

The challenge

Faisal Kawoosa, general manager of research and consulting at Cybermedia Research said that messaging applications should do considerably more to build client’s attraction while understanding that they're effectively replicable by different applications. Thus, they should concoct something out of the box to likewise ensure that there is a sustainable model revenue model.

Going by the records

As per the records of 2017, both WhatsApp and Messenger had a great place secured with the video and voice calling services. The Vice President of messaging products at Facebook, David Marcus said that in 2018, Messenger would be a platform for the customer care service. There have been studies, where it was found out that around 56% of the population surveyed wanted to text the customer care service rather than calling them. The research says that there would be an increase in the coming year when the percentage will rise to 67%.

This is obviously where the business is moving as it is not just focusing on the advantages of the development of the business, but also authorizes client requirements to help the business in other, more beneficial ways. Ovum's Dharia said messaging apps should endeavor to be the connection between a client's offline and online space.

Dharia also suggested that messaging applications ought to likewise collaborate with the relevant nearby accomplices, for example, retail locations to offer rebates, which will empower the client's approach.

At the beginning of the month, there had been reports of WhatsApp beginning to charge organizations for sending advertising and client benefit messages and the costs will shift in various nations. Businesses can get messages from clients for nothing within the initial 24-hours. Charges will begin for each message if the organization neglects to react to clients after that time. According to WhatsApp, each message is apparently going to cost 0.5 cents to 9 cent which is roughly 34 paise to Rs 6 in INR.

Just as of late Facebook valuation failed by $120 billion as per the record of a single day and it's very evident that the web-based giant apps like these need more income sources. WhatsApp for Business appears to be that venturing stone which will assist Facebook with monetizing the application it procured for $19 billion four years back.

There are reports that by 2019, WhatsApp will supposedly be utilizing the WhatsApp status highlight to give organizations a chance to publicize their items and advance them. There is no affirmation on what precisely will WhatsApp charge a business for publicizing on the Status however the client or customer will have the capacity to obviously observe that the Status has originated from a WhatsApp for the Business client. The component will be made accessible all around by 2019 said the report.

By 2020, the normal income created from informing applications is foreseen to represent more than $15 per client, driven basically by chatbots. To put the entire story in a nutshell, instant messaging apps can earn money through the following ways:

•    Subscription charges for extra features

•    Advertisements

•    Stickers

•    Official accounts

•    Filters, themes

•    In-app purchases

•    Payment gateways

The small business owners are not much excited about the transformation that is yet to happen. They are apprehensive that the facilities that they were getting through the free app will not continue anymore. Do share your feedback about the recent additions that are going to get featured in every app that you are using every day.