Ever thought about just how a messaging app can make money whilst offering free texting and calling? WhatsApp users at India could be surprised to know there is far more to messaging apps than communicating. Here’s how: by offering services such as digital payments, online shopping as well as content. China’s WeChat is just about the perfect example of the large opportunity that messaging apps hold. With over 900 million monthly active users, WeChat enables them do almost everything from messaging, buying grocery, hailing cabs, purchasing online food and even offline payments at restaurants – all this without needing to go to another app. These kinds of services not just provide the company incredible customer stickiness, they also create a remarkable revenue model. For now, WeChat’s competitors 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 greater platforms. “The reason chat apps are expanding beyond communications is to build a sustainable monetisation strategy,” said Neha Dharia, a senior analyst with a focus on messaging at London-based research firm Ovum. “Chat apps are shifting from being simply a provider of communication tools chat, voice and video) to being a platform for the exchange of services, payment mechanisms and content consumption.” WhatsApp, the largest messaging app on earth with 1.3 billion monthly active users, introduced a business version in India early on this week. “Based on research, we know that people WhatsApp to speak with businesses. make business messaging far more convenient for people and much more productive for businesses,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in respond to ET’s questions. Whatsapp Business is a separate app from Whatsapp Messenger, aimed mainly at giving a direct communicating platform to smaller businesses, many of who may be using WhatsApp already. Even while Whatsapp has kept the service free, it may extend it to larger businesses with added features for example analytics, in which it could demand a usage fee at a later stage, as a result creating a revenue model, segment watchers said. This actually also is targeted at improving subscriber connect that it can make use of for future monetization of its other services. The greater agenda – and a more critical one – for these firms is to get active users to take much more time on the app or services and also make it viable for revenue generation, according to experts.”Each and every technology company is vying for consumer stickiness, interaction and time invested on the app, and in order to keep them within the app’s ecosystem they are widening themselves to turn into platforms. Just being messaging apps that provide free services certainly won’t be a good revenuegeneration model,” said Jayanth Kolla, founding father of Bengaluru-based research firm Convergence Catalyst.Hope you enjoyed this article, to discover more on App Alternative visit our site.