Ever thought how a messaging app could make money whilst offering free texting and calling? WhatsApp users at India might be surprised to find out there is more to messaging apps than communicating. Here’s how: by offering services such as digital payments, online shopping and also content. China’s WeChat is among the ultimate example of the great opportunity which messaging apps hold. With over 900 million monthly active users, WeChat enables them to do everything from messaging, purchasing grocery, hailing cabs, buying online food and also offline payments at restaurants – all of this without having to go to another app. These services not just provide the company incredible customer stickiness, additionally they create a exceptional revenue model. At this point, WeChat’s rivals outside China this includes WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber as well as Line are behind the curve on this front, although some have begun on the path to becoming larger platforms. “The actual reason chat apps are expanding beyond communications is to build a lasting monetisation strategy,” said Neha Dharia, a senior analyst with a focus on messaging at London-based research firm Ovum. “Chat apps are moving from being simply a provider of communication tools chat, voice and video) to becoming a platform for the exchange of services, payment mechanisms and also content consumption.” WhatsApp, the biggest messaging app in the world with 1.3 billion every month active users, introduced a business version in India early on this week. “Based on research, we all know that people are utilizing WhatsApp to talk to businesses. make business messaging more convenient for folks and more productive for businesses,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in response to ET’s questions. Whatsapp Business is a different app from Whatsapp Messenger, aimed mostly at giving a direct communication platform to smaller businesses, the majority of who might be using WhatsApp already. Even while Whatsapp has kept the service free, it might broaden it to bigger businesses with added features for example analytics, from which it may well charge a usage fee at a later stage, as a result creating a revenue model, segment watchers said. This also is targeted at raising subscriber connect that it can leverage for future monetization of their other services. The larger agenda – and a more important one – for these firms is to get active users to invest a lot more time on the app or services as well as make it viable for revenue generation, according to specialists.”Each technology company is vying for consumer stickiness, interaction as well as time spent on the app, and in order to keep them within the app’s ecosystem they are widening themselves to turn into platforms. Simply being messaging applications that provide cost-free services won’t be a good revenuegeneration model,” said Jayanth Kolla, founder of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.Want day-to-day news letters about App Alternative? Please go to the website.