Whatsapp becomes free for everyone. The most popular instant messaging app in the world has decided to bring the cost of its services to zero, which so far have only been free for the first year, to then become paid at the cost of 89 cents of euros every 12 months. The announcement came from Jan Koum, founder of the application, at the DLD (Digital-Life-Design) conference in Munich.
Koum noted that the current business model "doesn't work for some people," for example who does not have a credit cardlike younger kids. On the other hand, several Whatsapp competitors already offer the same service free of charge: the best known is Messenger of Facebook, which has exceeded 800 million active users per month. In this case, however, we cannot speak of real competition, because two years ago Whatsapp (which has about 900 million active users every month) was bought by Facebook for 19 billion dollars.
But what will the notorious 89 cents be replaced by? Koum explained that the project is connect people with big companies, who will use Whatsapp as a sort of customer service, but also to manage transactions and payments. The details aren't out yet, but one thing already seems certain: not even a banner ad will ever appear on the app page.
