The messaging app WhatsApp is trying to become more than just a messaging app. It is paving way to becoming platforms in its own right. However, as of now it is not very clear what the people behind it want it to be in near future.
Very recently the platform announced to be making the app completely free. Earlier it used to charge an annual fee of $1 from users. It also added not to be entertaining advertisement to support the funding and spam the worldwide popular service.
Two years ago Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion, raising few eyebrows with the price tag. The smartphone messaging service then had some 450 million users globally.
After the deal the messaging app has grown tremendously and now it has about one billion users from across the world. It has no sign of slowing down too. It is said by the end of the decade the platform may reach the mark of 2 billion users.
WhatsApp founder Jan Koum said many of its users don’t have credit cards or online banking and hence it is difficult for them to pay the annual fee of 99 cents. This has made them to make the platform free of any such charges and rely on something else for revenue such as charging businesses to use it in talking to customers.
Koum added, “That could mean communicating with your bank about whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed flight.”
Analysts predict the move could revolutionize the customer service.
