How WhatsApp earns Money? | Secret Business Model of WhatsApp | Dhruv Rathee

Dhruv Rathee
16 Jan 202217:52

Summary

TLDRWhatsApp, a messaging app with over 2 billion monthly active users, was initially a status update platform without messaging capabilities. Founded by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, it evolved into a messaging service after users began to communicate via status updates. The app grew organically, fueled by the high costs of SMS and calling rates. Initially funded by investments, WhatsApp later charged users $0.99 annually but became free again in 2016 to expand its user base, particularly in regions where credit cards were uncommon. Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014, aiming to eliminate competition and leverage user data. After the acquisition, conflicts arose between WhatsApp's founders and Facebook over data privacy and business models. The founders eventually left, and Facebook introduced the WhatsApp Business app and API, allowing businesses to interact with customers and generate revenue through a fee structure based on response times. WhatsApp Pay was also launched, offering P2P payments and charging businesses a transaction fee. Despite the potential for ads on WhatsApp, its total revenue remains undisclosed as part of Facebook's financials. The future of WhatsApp's data usage remains uncertain, with recent controversies surrounding its privacy policy.

Takeaways

  • 📲 WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app with over 2 billion monthly active users, representing 25% of the world's population.
  • 💡 The idea for WhatsApp came from Jan Koum's experience of missing calls at the gym, leading to the creation of an app that could show his status to friends.
  • 🚀 Initially, WhatsApp only allowed users to update their status, but it evolved into a messaging service after users started to use statuses like messages.
  • 💸 WhatsApp's business model started with charging users $0.99 per year, but it became free again in 2016 to expand its user base, especially in countries where the fee was a barrier.
  • 🛒 WhatsApp Business App allows businesses to create profiles and interact with customers, with the Business API providing advanced features for a fee.
  • 💼 Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion, integrating it more closely with its own services and using it to bolster its advertising and data collection capabilities.
  • 📈 WhatsApp's revenue comes from the Business API, where businesses pay a fee for responses outside a 24-hour window, with rates varying by country.
  • 💰 The introduction of WhatsApp Pay aimed to facilitate P2P and business transactions, with Facebook earning a fee on each business transaction.
  • 🌐 The user base and popularity of WhatsApp led to organic growth, without the need for traditional marketing or advertising spend.
  • 🤝 Brian Acton and Jan Koum, the founders of WhatsApp, became billionaires after the Facebook acquisition but later left due to disagreements over data privacy and business direction.
  • ⚖️ Post-acquisition, conflicts arose between WhatsApp's founders and Facebook over issues like data privacy, leading to the founders' departure and questioning of WhatsApp's original principles.

Q & A

  • What is the significance of WhatsApp having over 2 billion monthly active users?

    -It signifies that WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world, with a user base that represents approximately 25% of the world's population.

  • How did the founders of WhatsApp, Brian Acton and Jan Koum, come up with the idea for the app?

    -Jan Koum conceived the idea when he frequented gyms and missed calls from friends. He thought of an app that would show a status update to indicate his unavailability, which eventually led to the creation of WhatsApp.

  • What was the original purpose of WhatsApp before it evolved into a messaging service?

    -Initially, WhatsApp was designed as a status update platform where users could post their current activities so that their friends and contacts could see what they were up to.

  • How did WhatsApp gain popularity without any marketing or ads?

    -WhatsApp's popularity grew organically through word of mouth. Users who liked the app recommended it to their friends, leading to exponential growth.

  • Why did WhatsApp initially charge its users a fee of $0.99 per year?

    -The initial fee was introduced as a business model to cover the costs of sending SMSs for user verification and to maintain the app without relying on advertising or external investments.

  • What was Brian Acton's stance on the philosophy of WhatsApp's business model?

    -Brian Acton was adamant about keeping the app free from ads, games, and gimmicks. He wanted the app to remain simple, focused on messaging, and to excel at that single function.

  • Why did Facebook purchase WhatsApp for $19 billion?

    -Facebook aimed to eliminate significant competition by owning both Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Additionally, WhatsApp's access to vast user data was seen as a valuable asset for Facebook's data-driven business model.

  • What was the reason behind WhatsApp removing its annual subscription fee in January 2016?

    -The $1 fee was removed to expand the user base, especially in countries like India where many people did not have credit cards or could not afford the fee.

  • How does WhatsApp Business API generate revenue for the company?

    -The Business API allows businesses to interact with customers on WhatsApp and automate responses. Businesses can send messages for free within 24 hours of a customer's query, but after that period, they must pay a small fee.

  • What is the current status of WhatsApp Pay in India?

    -WhatsApp Pay was launched in India in November 2020, but it has only reached a small fraction of the market share of UPI due to UPI's lower transaction fees for businesses.

  • What is the future of advertising on WhatsApp according to the script?

    -Facebook is considering running ads on WhatsApp, potentially within the status feature, to generate additional revenue.

  • What is the WhatsApp Business app and how does it contribute to the concept of WhatsApp Commerce?

    -The WhatsApp Business app allows businesses to create profiles and interact with customers on WhatsApp. It is contributing to the growth of WhatsApp Commerce, where businesses sell products and services exclusively through WhatsApp.

Outlines

00:00

📲 The Birth and Business Model of WhatsApp

This paragraph introduces WhatsApp as the world's most popular messaging app with over 2 billion monthly active users. It explains the origin of WhatsApp by founders Brian Acton and Jan Koum, who were previously employed at Yahoo! and were rejected by Facebook and Twitter. The video aims to explore how WhatsApp, a free app without ads, generates revenue. The idea for WhatsApp came from Jan Koum's experience of missing calls while at the gym, leading to the creation of an app that allowed users to post their status, informing friends when they were unavailable. Initially, WhatsApp did not support messaging but evolved into a messaging service that capitalized on the high costs of SMS and calling rates. It quickly gained popularity and was downloaded over 200,000 times in its early days, leading to significant investment and organic growth.

05:02

💸 WhatsApp's Initial Business Model and Facebook Acquisition

The second paragraph discusses WhatsApp's initial business model, which involved charging users $0.99 per year. Despite this fee, the app's user experience and feature additions, such as photo sharing, contributed to its continued growth. By 2011, WhatsApp became the top app in the AppStore. The founders were committed to keeping the app simple and focused on messaging, without ads or unnecessary features. However, this model changed with Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014, which led to conflicts between the two companies over data privacy and business practices. In 2016, WhatsApp removed its subscription fee to expand its user base, particularly in countries where credit cards were not widely used. The paragraph also mentions potential future plans for monetization, including partnerships with businesses.

10:05

🤔 The Struggle for Independence and WhatsApp's New Business Direction

This paragraph details the tension between WhatsApp's founders and Facebook, leading to the founders' departure in 2017. After Mark Zuckerberg's increased control over WhatsApp, the company launched the WhatsApp Business app in 2018, allowing businesses to create profiles and interact with customers. The Business API became a source of revenue, with businesses paying a small fee for responses beyond a 24-hour window. The paragraph also discusses the integration of WhatsApp Pay for peer-to-peer transactions and the potential for future ad revenue through status updates. Despite these changes, the exact revenue figures for WhatsApp remain undisclosed, and there is ongoing speculation about how user data may be utilized.

15:10

🌐 WhatsApp's Global Impact and Future Concerns

The final paragraph touches on the global impact of WhatsApp, with estimates suggesting that over 1 million businesses in India and about 5 million worldwide use the WhatsApp Business app. It highlights the concept of WhatsApp Commerce, where businesses sell products and services exclusively through WhatsApp. The investment by Facebook in Reliance's Jio Platforms and the subsequent use of WhatsApp for JioMart transactions are also mentioned. The paragraph raises concerns about WhatsApp's privacy policy and the potential use of user data for profit, emphasizing the uncertainty of WhatsApp's future in terms of data usage and monetization strategies.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a widely used messaging application that allows users to send messages, make voice and video calls, and share media without the need for traditional SMS or MMS services. It is central to the video's narrative as it discusses the app's evolution, business model, and its acquisition by Facebook.

💡Monthly Active Users (MAU)

Monthly Active Users refers to the number of unique users who have interacted with a digital service within a given 30-day period. In the context of the video, it highlights the massive scale of WhatsApp's user base, emphasizing its global popularity.

💡Business Model

A business model outlines how a company generates revenue and sustains its operations. The video explores WhatsApp's business model, from its initial paid subscription to its eventual free service and the introduction of the WhatsApp Business app and API as revenue streams.

💡Acquisition

Acquisition refers to the purchase of one company by another. Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion is a pivotal moment in the video, marking a significant shift in WhatsApp's business strategy and its integration within the Facebook ecosystem.

💡API (Application Programming Interface)

An API is a set of protocols and tools that allows different software applications to communicate with each other. The video discusses how WhatsApp's Business API enables businesses to interact with customers and conduct transactions, which is a key part of WhatsApp's revenue generation.

💡Data Privacy

Data privacy concerns the right to have control over how personal information is collected and used. The video touches on controversies and concerns regarding WhatsApp's data privacy policies, especially after its acquisition by Facebook, which is known for its data-driven advertising model.

💡Revenue

Revenue is the income generated by a company from its business activities. The video examines different methods WhatsApp uses to generate revenue, including the Business API and potential future strategies like ads within the app.

💡Investment

Investment refers to the act of putting money into financial assets or production with the expectation of generating income or profit. The video mentions early investments in WhatsApp, which helped the company to grow and later become an attractive acquisition target for Facebook.

💡Organic Growth

Organic growth is the increase in a company's revenue or user base that comes from its existing operations, as opposed to through acquisitions or mergers. The video notes that WhatsApp's initial growth was organic, driven by word-of-mouth and user satisfaction.

💡Signal Foundation

The Signal Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Brian Acton, one of the co-founders of WhatsApp. The video discusses Acton's establishment of the foundation and the development of the Signal app, which prioritizes data privacy and is positioned as an alternative to WhatsApp.

💡WhatsApp Pay

WhatsApp Pay is a payment service that allows users to make peer-to-peer transactions and conduct business through the WhatsApp platform. The video describes the introduction of WhatsApp Pay in India and its potential role in generating revenue for WhatsApp through transaction fees.

Highlights

WhatsApp has become the most popular messaging app with over 2 billion monthly active users.

Founders Brian Acton and Jan Koum were initially rejected by Facebook and Twitter before creating WhatsApp.

The initial idea for WhatsApp came from Jan Koum's experience of missing calls while at the gym.

The name 'WhatsApp' is derived from the phrase 'What's up?'

WhatsApp initially only allowed users to post their status, not send messages.

Users began using the status feature to communicate, leading to the development of the messaging service.

WhatsApp filled a gap in the market for a free messaging app, as competitors like BBM were limited to specific devices.

The app grew rapidly through word-of-mouth, without the need for marketing or advertising.

WhatsApp initially charged users $0.99 per year, but later removed the fee to expand its user base.

The company's business model shifted to offering an API for businesses to communicate with customers.

Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion, integrating it more closely with its own services.

Founders Acton and Koum left WhatsApp due to conflicts over data privacy and business model directions.

Brian Acton later established the non-profit Signal Foundation, promoting data privacy and a free messaging service.

WhatsApp Business API allows companies to interact with customers and automate responses, with a fee for messages after 24 hours.

WhatsApp Pay was launched in India for P2P payments, with a flat fee for businesses on transactions.

Facebook is considering running ads on WhatsApp, potentially on the status feature.

WhatsApp's financial data is not separately disclosed by Facebook, but it is estimated to generate significant revenue.

WhatsApp Commerce is emerging, with businesses using the platform to sell products and services.

Controversy surrounds WhatsApp's privacy policy and how user data may be used by Facebook.

Transcripts

play00:00

Hello, friends!

play00:00

From 'Good Morning' messages of the family,

play00:02

to the fake messages of WhatsApp University,

play00:05

today, WhatsApp has become the most popular messaging app in the world.

play00:10

They have more than 2 billion monthly active users.

play00:13

Meaning that 25% of the population of the world

play00:16

use this one app.

play00:19

But have you ever wondered,

play00:20

since this app is completely free to use,

play00:22

and there are no ads on this app,

play00:24

so how does this company WhatsApp earn money?

play00:28

In today's video,

play00:29

come let's understand the Business Model of WhatsApp.

play00:53

by two people: Brian Acton and Jan Koum.

play00:56

Before this, the two had worked together at Yahoo! for 9 years.

play01:00

And when they left Yahoo!

play01:02

they were applying for jobs at various companies,

play01:04

they applied to Facebook but were rejected.

play01:08

They applied to Twitter but were rejected from there as well.

play01:11

In fact, in 2009, Brian Acton had famously tweeted,

play01:15

in it, he had written that he had applied for a job at Twitter,

play01:19

but he was rejected,

play01:20

but he wasn't too disappointed because the commute would've been too long.

play01:23

He tweeted something similar after being rejected from Facebook.

play01:26

Ironically, just 5 years after this,

play01:29

Facebook purchased WhatsApp for $19 billion.

play01:33

But before this, it is interesting to know

play01:34

where did they get the idea of creating WhatsApp?

play01:37

Jan Koum used to frequent gyms,

play01:39

and there he realised that

play01:41

he wouldn't be able to receive the calls of his friends.

play01:45

He kept on missing calls.

play01:46

That made him think that there should be an app,

play01:49

that would should a status that he was in the gym at the moment,

play01:52

so that his friends could see the status and understand

play01:54

that since he's in the gym, they shouldn't call him then.

play01:56

On this basic idea, he created the app

play01:59

WhatsApp.

play02:00

It's interesting to note that this app didn't have messaging.

play02:03

You couldn't send messages to anyone.

play02:05

Like you can do so now on WhatsApp.

play02:07

This app was simply WhatsApp.

play02:09

The word WhatsApp came from the words 'What's up?'

play02:12

Like you ask people, "What's up? How are you doing?"

play02:15

On this app, you could simply let others know what you were up to.

play02:17

Meaning that you could simply post your status on this app.

play02:21

You could write that you were in the gym.

play02:23

And the app would notify the rest of your friends,

play02:28

that you're in the gym.

play02:30

When you change your status, this app notified your friends and contacts.

play02:34

This app was created for doing merely this, initially.

play02:37

But eventually, he realised that

play02:39

some of the users of this app

play02:42

were using the status as messages.

play02:45

When one would change the status to doing something,

play02:48

their friends might update their status with whatever they were doing.

play02:52

So the first person would update their status yet again, in response.

play02:57

Similarly, people started using these as messages.

play03:00

Then they thought that

play03:02

it would be better to make the app a messaging service.

play03:05

And this idea was a huge success.

play03:07

Because back in 2009,

play03:09

there was only one other app on which one could message others for free.

play03:13

That was the BlackBerry's BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).

play03:17

The problem with it was that

play03:18

you had to have a BlackBerry phone.

play03:21

So only the users of BlackBerry phones could use BBM.

play03:26

And WhatsApp filled in a gap here.

play03:29

The users of other phones

play03:31

felt the need for a free messaging app,

play03:35

and WhatsApp became that app.

play03:37

Within days,

play03:38

it was downloaded over 200,000 times.

play03:40

WhatsApp started receiving funding from investors.

play03:43

WhatsApp's popularity skyrocketed on its own.

play03:46

Without any marketing or ads.

play03:49

Because users liked it so much that they told their friends about it.

play03:52

Those friends told their friends,

play03:54

and WhatsApp saw organic growth.

play03:56

As you'd remember, around 2009,

play03:59

these telephone companies used to charge a lot of money

play04:02

for sending each SMS.

play04:04

Calling rates were based on minutes per call.

play04:06

They were quite expensive.

play04:08

And here was a clearcut free option

play04:09

so people started using WhatsApp.

play04:11

Within the next 2 years, this app became one of the top 10 apps in the AppStore.

play04:15

This was true for almost every country.

play04:18

Except for America.

play04:19

In America, in 2009,

play04:21

most of their telephone companies had flat rates for SMSs,

play04:25

and free calling minutes.

play04:27

So this wasn't a great incentive for the Americans

play04:31

to use WhatsApp.

play04:32

They continued with using SMSs.

play04:35

And even today,

play04:36

the USA is one of the worst performing markets for WhatsApp.

play04:40

Can you imagine it?

play04:42

WhatsApp saw its growth due to European, Asian and African countries.

play04:46

Talking about money,

play04:47

initially, there weren't many expenses to run WhatsApp.

play04:51

They had a small team,

play04:52

they had built a simple app.

play04:54

They weren't spending money on marketing or running ads.

play04:58

So the biggest expense of running WhatsApp

play05:02

was actually the cost of sending SMSs.

play05:05

The verification text that WhatsApp sends when a user joins it,

play05:09

so the one SMS per user they had to send for verification,

play05:15

was their biggest expense at the time.

play05:17

Where could they get money for this?

play05:20

They had received some investments.

play05:22

With their success, more companies wanted to invest in them.

play05:27

They would give them money in exchange for their shares.

play05:29

But the investments weren't exactly pouring in.

play05:32

So they came up with a new business model.

play05:34

WhatsApp started charging its users $0.99

play05:37

about $1 per year,

play05:39

they started charging their users to use this app.

play05:43

You heard it right, WhatsApp wasn't a free app anymore.

play05:46

They started charging $1.

play05:48

But despite that, the user experience of their app was so good,

play05:51

and the app worked so smoothly,

play05:54

on top of it, new features were being added,

play05:56

like you could now send photos over WhatsApp.

play05:59

Their growth continued.

play06:00

By 2011, their app had become the top app in the AppStore.

play06:05

Acton was clear about one thing.

play06:07

He had stuck a note on his table.

play06:11

"No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!"

play06:15

He didn't want to run any ads on WhatsApp.

play06:17

Nor did he want to add features that had no greater purpose.

play06:21

He wanted to keep the app simple and to the point.

play06:25

The app built for messaging.

play06:26

He wanted the app to be so good at that one thing

play06:29

that no other app could compete with it.

play06:32

And people keep on using it.

play06:33

Their $1 Business Model was very successful.

play06:36

Within 3 years,

play06:38

WhatsApp became a profitable company.

play06:41

All the money they earned was spent on their small team.

play06:44

So that new features could be added to WhatsApp.

play06:47

The problems in the software could be rectified.

play06:51

And a reliable messaging app could be created.

play06:54

They claimed that their product was their passion.

play06:56

And that the users' data wasn't something that interested them.

play06:59

That they had no interest in taking users' data.

play07:02

But after this, Facebook makes an entry in our story.

play07:05

And this Model started crumbling apart from here.

play07:09

Mark Zuckerberg was trying to buy WhatsApp since 2012.

play07:14

But this deal was finalised in February 2014.

play07:17

And WhatsApp is taken over for $19 billion by Facebook.

play07:23

And the employees working in WhatsApp,

play07:26

now became Facebook employees.

play07:29

WhatsApp founders had a meeting with Google CEO Sundar Pichai as well.

play07:39

because WhatsApp was the biggest competition of Facebook Messenger.

play07:44

And by 2014,

play07:45

several other messaging applications had popped up in competition.

play07:49

Like WeChat, Kik, Line and Viber.

play07:52

Facebook wanted to buy WhatsApp so that

play07:55

there'd be no significant competition after they own both Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

play08:00

Apart from this, WhatsApp had access to the user data of so many people,

play08:04

and Facebook realised that they could use this user data to earn more money.

play08:08

Because Facebook runs its company by selling data.

play08:11

We'll talk about this in some other video.

play08:14

When we discuss the Business Model of Facebook.

play08:16

After this deal, Acton and Koum, the founders of WhatsApp became billionaires overnight.

play08:22

If you're wondering about their reason to sell WhatsApp,

play08:26

Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg had told them that

play08:29

they would allow them to run WhatsApp independently even after the acquisition.

play08:35

That there would be no interference in their work.

play08:38

Thus they agreed to sell it.

play08:39

It sounds like a good deal.

play08:41

They get the money and don't even have to compromise on their values.

play08:45

But there is no happy ending in this story.

play08:48

Because there were constant conflicts between Facebook and WhatsApp over the next years.

play08:54

The team of WhatsApp and its founders

play08:57

and the way Facebook was pressurising them.

play09:00

In January 2016, we get to know that

play09:02

WhatsApp had removed its $1 fees.

play09:05

And WhatsApp became a completely free application again.

play09:09

The reason behind it is said to be

play09:11

that there are many countries like India where people don't have credit cards.

play09:15

So they weren't able to pay the $1 fee,

play09:17

and many people were actually unable to afford it.

play09:20

In this case, making this a free app helps in developing a larger user base,

play09:25

so they decided that since they wanted to expand and have more users for their app,

play09:31

they would have to make the app free to use.

play09:33

The question then arose, what should be the Business Model?

play09:36

How should they earn money?

play09:38

During this time, it was being said that

play09:39

WhatsApp would try to get into partnerships with businesses

play09:43

and would try to find a source of revenue from there.

play09:46

At the same time, Mark Zuckerberg was being pressured by his investors

play09:51

because $19 billion had been paid to WhatsApp

play09:54

and so they needed to make some money out of it somehow.

play09:57

Somehow they had to justify the purchase and show that it was profitable.

play10:02

They had to make WhatsApp profitable quickly.

play10:04

In a way where they could earn more money from WhatsApp.

play10:06

In turn, Mark pressurised the founders of WhatsApp.

play10:10

Fed up with this, the founders of WhatsApp

play10:13

gave up finally in March 2017,

play10:17

they couldn't take it anymore.

play10:19

Brian Acton resigned from his job in September 2017.

play10:23

A few months later,

play10:25

Jan Koum left WhatsApp too.

play10:28

Saying that Facebook's opinion on Data Privacy,

play10:32

and the Business Model that Facebook wants to force on WhatsApp

play10:36

aren't what he agreed to.

play10:38

And that he couldn't tolerate those in any manner.

play10:41

And so he was leaving WhatsApp.

play10:43

Friends, you can say that after 2018,

play10:46

Mark Zuckerberg established his control over WhatsApp.

play10:50

Brian Acton went on to establish a non-profit Signal Foundation.

play10:55

With this, we got the new messaging application Signal.

play11:00

As you know, many people compare Signal with WhatsApp.

play11:03

And believe that Signal is a superior app in many aspects.

play11:07

It protects your Data Privacy,

play11:10

it's a free application like WhatsApp.

play11:12

And most importantly, it is a non-profit application.

play11:16

This time around, Brian decided that

play11:17

he didn't want to get entangled in Business Models,

play11:19

because whenever they run after profits,

play11:21

they have to compromise on the principles of the company in some way or the other.

play11:25

That's why Signal would remain a non-profit app,

play11:29

they wouldn't worry about making money,

play11:31

they would ensure data privacy of the users,

play11:33

and would provide the users with a truly free messaging app.

play11:36

Thankfully, we could get an app like this.

play11:39

But this video is on WhatsApp.

play11:41

So what happened to WhatsApp then?

play11:43

What was the Business Model that Mark Zuckerberg cooked up?

play11:46

In 2018, Facebook launched the WhatsApp Business app.

play11:50

On this app, businesses could create their business profiles.

play11:53

And the verified businesses,

play11:55

can link their websites and Facebook pages,

play11:59

with this business profile.

play12:01

Facebook established a link between Facebook Pages

play12:05

and WhatsApp.

play12:07

People can use the business profiles to go on Facebook through the link.

play12:12

They created an excellent option of promoting Facebook.

play12:15

The new users to visit the business profiles

play12:18

can now go to the Facebook Page with a click only.

play12:20

Although the WhatsApp Business application is completely free to use,

play12:24

but the Business API,

play12:26

is the source of revenue for WhatsApp.

play12:28

API is the Application Programming Interface.

play12:31

Basically, a medium through which

play12:33

multiple applications can communicate with each other.

play12:36

Or perform a function or a task.

play12:38

Let me explain this with an example.

play12:40

When you book a taxi on Uber,

play12:42

you would've noticed that the map on Uber,

play12:45

has the watermark of Google.

play12:47

Basically, Google Maps is providing its services to Uber.

play12:51

So that Uber can show a map on its app.

play12:55

Google is obviously not the creator of Uber.

play12:58

Instead, what's happening here is that Google Maps,

play13:00

is providing its API to Uber.

play13:02

It's providing its Application Programming Interface to Uber.

play13:05

Similarly, WhatsApp is selling its API to businesses.

play13:08

If businesses want to interact with customers over WhatsApp,

play13:12

and to automatically respond to the queries,

play13:15

they can do so,

play13:17

But if they use WhatsApp's API,

play13:19

they can even send shipping confirmation, appointment reminders

play13:22

and even sell event tickets to their customers.

play13:25

The revenue model is that

play13:26

if the businesses reply within 24 hours,

play13:29

sending the message is free for them.

play13:32

But if they need to reply after 24 hours,

play13:34

they have to pay a small fee then.

play13:37

The fees are calculated differently for different countries.

play13:41

On this table, you can check out the fees for various countries.

play13:43

In India, it is €0.0038

play13:46

for the first 250,000 messages.

play13:48

It is basically around ₹0.30.

play13:51

You might ask about the businesses that choose to use these services.

play13:56

Friends, the answer to it

play13:57

are the companies that deal with millions of customers.

play14:01

Like airline tickets,

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or travel tickets or movie tickets,

play14:05

or large banks.

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So the users of WhatsApp Business API are huge companies.

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Singapore Airlines, Booking.com,

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Uber, MakeMyTrip, Netflix,

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these are some of the examples of the users.

play14:16

Facebook didn't stop here friends.

play14:18

Facebook is looking for more ways it can earn money from WhatsApp.

play14:22

That's why they have integrated the option for making payments.

play14:25

It was started for Indian users,

play14:27

to make P2P payments.

play14:29

They're launching a service known as WhatsApp Pay

play14:32

from it, they would be able to earn some more money.

play14:33

Although, for normal users, it would be free to use WhatsApp Pay,

play14:37

but for the businesses,

play14:38

they would have to pay a flat fee of 3.99% on every transaction.

play14:43

In November 2020 WhatsApp Pay was launched in India.

play14:47

It was expected that this feature would become very popular.

play14:50

But thankfully, in our country, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) already exists.

play14:55

It doesn't charge this huge commission from businesses.

play14:57

This is the reason why WhatsApp Pay could reach only 0.02% of the volume of UPI.

play15:04

In total, 2.6 million transactions have been completed using WhatsApp Pay.

play15:09

Their total worth was ₹1.04 billion.

play15:13

Apart from this, Facebook is considering running ads on WhatsApp.

play15:16

So that they can earn even more money.

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It is being planned that the statuses in WhatsApp,

play15:21

would eventually host ads.

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Friends, if we talk about the total revenue WhatsApp generates for Facebook,

play15:28

we don't have detailed info available for it.

play15:31

Unlike the other Business Models on which I made videos,

play15:34

they had publicly available data.

play15:36

Because WhatsApp is a part of Facebook's company,

play15:39

Facebook doesn't show an additional revenue breakdown from WhatsApp.

play15:44

Forbes ran with an estimate in 2017,

play15:47

when WhatsApp had 1.3 billion users.

play15:49

They estimated that the average revenue per user of WhatsApp,

play15:53

could be anywhere around $4 to $12.

play15:56

The Indian division of WhatsApp earned a total revenue of ₹68.4 million in 2019.

play16:03

But their profit was said to be only ₹5.7 million.

play16:07

They had spent ₹34.3 million on paying salaries to employees.

play16:11

₹13 million on promoting the business, legal fees and professional fees.

play16:16

In Financial Year 2018, WhatsApp incurred a loss of ₹500,000.

play16:21

For the Indian operations.

play16:22

In India, it is estimated that more than 1 million businesses use the WhatsApp Business app.

play16:29

And worldwide, about 5 million businesses use it.

play16:32

With more businesses using WhatsApp to sell their products and services,

play16:37

the concept of WhatsApp Commerce is taking shape.

play16:40

Where many such businesses have come up,

play16:43

that sell their products exclusively through WhatsApp.

play16:46

In April 2020, Facebook made an investment of $5.7 billion in Reliance's Jio Platforms.

play16:53

After this deal, JioMart, Reliance's e-commerce platform

play16:58

started using WhatsApp for its transactions.

play17:02

So basically, WhatsApp is turned into a product

play17:06

on which things can be purchased and sold,

play17:08

on which payments can be made,

play17:10

and on which, you may even see ads in the future.

play17:13

Apart from these, what does Mark Zuckerberg plan to do with the data?

play17:17

We don't know much about it.

play17:19

But we do know that there was a recent controversy surrounding the privacy policy of WhatsApp.

play17:24

People are uncertain about the future,

play17:28

about how WhatsApp data would be used.

play17:30

Many people accuse Facebook of trying to use the data to earn more money.

play17:36

Time will tell.

play17:37

But I hope that you found the story of WhatsApp to be interesting.

play17:40

And informative.

play17:42

Let's meet in the next video.

play17:43

Thank you very much!

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