Ever thought about just how a messaging app can make money whilst giving free texting and calling? WhatsApp users within India might be surprised to discover that there is much more to messaging apps than communicating. Here is how: by providing services for example digital payments, online shopping as well as content. China’s WeChat is just about the best example of the great opportunity that messaging apps hold. With more than 900 million monthly active users, WeChat assists them do everything from messaging, buying grocery, hailing cabs, buying online food as well as offline payments at restaurants – all of this without having to go to another app. These kinds of services not merely provide the company outstanding customer stickiness, they also create a remarkable revenue model. For now, WeChat’s competition outside China such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber and also Line are behind the curve on this front, although some have started on the road to becoming bigger platforms. “The reason chat apps are widening beyond communications is to create a lasting monetisation strategy,” said Neha Dharia, a senior analyst with a focus on messaging at London-based research firm Ovum. “Chat apps are shifting away from being simply a provider of communication tools chat, voice and video) to being a platform for the exchange of services, payment mechanisms as well as content consumption.” WhatsApp, the biggest messaging app on earth 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 far more convenient for individuals and much more productive for businesses,” a WhatsApp spokesman said in respond to ET’s questions. Whatsapp Business is a separate app from Whatsapp Messenger, aimed mostly at giving a direct communication platform to small businesses, a lot of who might be using WhatsApp already. While Whatsapp has maintained the service free, it could expand it to larger businesses with added features for example analytics, in which it could charge a usage fee at a later stage, as a result creating a revenue model, segment watchers said. This also is geared at raising subscriber connect that it can make use of for future monetization of their other services. The larger agenda – and a more crucial one – for these corporations is to get active users to take more time on the app or services and make it viable for income generation, based on experts.”Every technology company is vying for consumer stickiness, interaction and also time invested on the app, and in order to keep them around the app’s ecosystem they’re broadening themselves to become platforms. Merely being messaging applications that offer free services isn’t going to be a strong revenuegeneration model,” said Jayanth Kolla, founder of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.You could find out more concerning App Alternative by visiting our site.