How does WhatsApp make money ?

WhatsApp business model :

Recently Facebook made its biggest acquisition of instant messenger WhatsApp for 19 Billion dollars. WhatsApp is already having 450 Million users worldwide.

and it “is the only app we’ve ever seen with higher engagement than Facebook itself,” according to Mark Zuckerberg. - See more at: http://www.idtech.com/blog/why-is-whatsapp-worth-19b-how-do-apps-even-make-money/#sthash.uUMyXzNB.dpuf

"It is the only app we’ve ever seen with higher engagement than Facebook itself,” according to Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook.Inc. 

and it “is the only app we’ve ever seen with higher engagement than Facebook itself,” according to Mark Zuckerberg. - See more at: http://www.idtech.com/blog/why-is-whatsapp-worth-19b-how-do-apps-even-make-money/#sthash.uUMyXzNB.dpuf

WhatsApp is growing fastly ( over 1 million new users joining WhatsApp everyday) since its free in all market including Android, Windows Phone, iOS, Blackberry, Nokia.

but how actually WhatsApp earns money ? 

You can't see any advertisements in WhatsApp.

" Whatsapp is meant for instant messaging and forcing advertisements would disrupt the sole meaning of Whatsapp and instant messaging" - Whatsapp’s CEO Jan Koum 

Then how it is possible to make money for WhatsApp (App is free to download, there is no advertisement). 

WhatsApp states that it has annual service charges, It is free to use WhatsApp for only one year then user have to pay 1 Euro for continuation of service. But there is no news that people are paying for WhatsApp yet.

WhatsApp also never mentioned how many paid subscribers they are having so this business model is questionable.

WhatsApp might earn money only by selling the data it is having in its server. The data including messages, images what we share in whatsapp are stored in their own server and WhatsApp might sell it for companies who are wishing to give handfull of moneys for data showing the interest of the people (What they like like goodies, gadgets etc)

So by selling the information available in WhatsApp database, they might make money. Another possible way is by the contact list which WhatsApp takes from user contacts. They might using the list to find relationships and their interest which can be used for mass advertisement and marketing.

There is no other potential way to earn money through WhatsApp.

and it “is the only app we’ve ever seen with higher engagement than Facebook itself,” according to Mark Zuckerberg. - See more at: http://www.idtech.com/blog/why-is-whatsapp-worth-19b-how-do-apps-even-make-money/#sthash.uUMyXzNB.dpuf

and it “is the only app we’ve ever seen with higher engagement than Facebook itself,” according to Mark Zuckerberg. - See more at: http://www.idtech.com/blog/why-is-whatsapp-worth-19b-how-do-apps-even-make-money/#sthash.uUMyXzNB.dpuf

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About IamVickyAV

I am Vicky AV, Engineer, Pro Blogger & Twitterati.
I created this blog to post some interesting technical stuff that I feel everyone should know. I hope you find these interesting too. Follow me on Twitter