Messaging app goes free and says it will not rely on adverts
for revenue, but will introduce ways for users to chat to businesses
The messaging app's founder Jan Koum announced the move on
Monday. The app, bought by Facebook for $19 billion (£13 billion) in 2014,
had charged an annual fee of $1, or for those who downloaded it before July
2013, an upfront fee.
However, Koum promised that WhatsApp would not follow
Facebook and Instagram in introducing adverts, saying that it would fund itself
with business accounts.
"Starting this year, we will test tools that allow you
to use WhatsApp to communicate with businesses and organisations that you want
to hear from,"Koum said.
"That could mean communicating with your bank about
whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed
flight. We all get these messages elsewhere today – through text messages and
phone calls – so we want to test new tools to make this easier to do on
WhatsApp, while still giving you an experience without third-party ads and
spam."
Businesses might pay a fee to run an official customer
support channel via WhatsApp. Twitter has become a popular way for people to
speak to businesses in real-time, and this was one of the key reasons why Twitter increased the character limit for direct messages last
year.
WhatsApp has almost a billion users around the world, and
many of them don't have credit or debit cards to pay the fee, even if it is
marginal. This meant that they would lose access to the app after having it for
free for the first year.
Since buying Instagram in 2013, Facebook has added
picture and video adverts, and the service has introduced new features and
apps. WhatsApp, meanwhile, has changed remarkably little, with its major
changes being the introduction of voice calling and the the blue tick read receipts.
Many of the app's users do not pay a subscription fee because
they paid for the app upfront, before it became a subscription service in 2013.
WhatsApp has almost a billion users around the world, and
many of them don't have credit or debit cards to pay the fee, even if it is
marginal. This meant that they would lose access to the app after having it for
free for the first year.
Since buying Instagram in 2013, Facebook has added
picture and video adverts, and the service has introduced new features and
apps. WhatsApp, meanwhile, has changed remarkably little, with its major
changes being the introduction of voice calling and the the blue tick read receipts.
Many of the app's users do not pay a subscription fee
because they paid for the app upfront, before it became a subscription service
in 2013.
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