In this article, we will see When was WhatsApp founded and all its features.
Introduction
With the world becoming more and more advanced people are choosing different communication mediums other than calling and physical meetups. A common and efficient way we use today to communicate among our near and dear ones is WhatsApp. It has been a prominent part of many people’s lives and even adults with no prior knowledge of the internet and web can easily use this simple app due to its creative design.
WhatsApp has been in function since February 2009 and has grown a lot. The app does not charge its users any amount for the services it provides. The app is completely free and does not contain any in-app purchases. It is available for free on iPhone, Android, PC, etc, and allows you to send and receive messages, voice calls, and video calls as well.
You may be wondering how Whatsapp offers all these services for free and what is the app’s actual source of revenue?
WhatsApp in its initial years provided a free test trial for the app and was completely free for a year but after that, you needed to pay a subscription yearly fee of $ 1 for the following years. This was the only revenue source of Whatsapp but later this module was discontinued by WhatsApp in 2016.
WhatsApp had a total of 1 billion users in 2016 when it decided to change its model from a yearly subscription fee to a completely free platform. WhatsApp today is available for free to every user around the world. So what is its actual revenue source?
You may be wondering that Whatsapp earns through advertising as most other platforms do. Instagram, Youtube, Facebook all live and earn through advertising. But Whatsapp is the only application whose founders hate ads and thus would never include ads in its app.
Whatsapp was founded by Brian Acton and Jan Koum who earlier worked for Yahoo! which is quite similar to Gmail and is a web service provider. Both left Yahoo due to its ad-focused business model and how it only worked to get in more and more ads. This was hated by both Acton and Koum and had a conflict that eventually led to them leaving the company for good.
Acton and Koum had decided that they wouldn’t include ads in their business model because they found them too annoying and it often shifts a business from providing to customers to providing to the businesses who run those ads.
WhatsApp revenue is generated through a different channel altogether. We all know about Whatsapp Business which was a new addition made by Whatsapp for all its customers who had a business. This model provided its customers with business API- Application Programming Interface. It’s a software model developed to make connecting and communicating easier. An API does what the server requests, making it easy for businesses to respond to customer messages. This model is provided free of cost to the users.
More about the WhatsApp Business app
WhatsApp Business was introduced in 2018 and is a recent upgrade to WhatsApp. It is available as a completely different app with features similar to Whatsapp but certain additional features that are prerequisites to any business. The app is designed to make owner and customer communication easier and faster where the customers can have access to your products and services and reach your websites to shops through the link option. It also helps make their shopping experience much better.
The app provides you options through which you can design a catalog of your products and upload new products to the catalog whenever you want to. It also gives the users the option to choose their messaging style. They can opt for the quick message option to respond to their customers much faster and build effective relationships with customers. Customer support can also be provided through the app due to its instant messaging system.
WhatsApp does charge you if you run a business using their services. They do this by charging you for the number of messages you send to your customers similar to your regular phone messaging where you prepay for the services. But WhatsApp has a condition here. If you respond to the customer within 24 hours then you wouldn’t be charged anything but if you respond to them after 24 hours Whatsapp will charge you for each message you send to that particular customer.
WhatsApp Business has a lot of users out of which some include – BMW which hosts workshops for its customers and is for all those who own a BMW and wish to repair it at some time, Hellmann’s that suggests its customers what they can cook today, thus solving the everyday nerve-racking question. Even Oppo uses WhatsApp Business and has designed Ollie, a chatbot to keep the customers in touch with Oppo.
WhatsApp Business and its features
Some features that you get with the Whatsapp Business app include-
- Business Profile- You get a chance to make your business profile which is optimized and approved by you. Creating a business profile will help other individuals become aware of your business and they can access your products and services whenever they want.
- Your business profile can also include your business address if you have a physical shop, your email, about your business, and your website to order your products or grab any of your services. You even get a verified business badge against your name if WhatsApp verifies your business. This is effective to increase sales and meet customer expectations.
- Quick Replies- WhatsApp helps you to reply quickly by giving you suggestions from your frequent replies to make your task easier. You just need to press the ” / “on your keyboard to display the suggested replies and you can choose one.
- Automatic Greeting Message- This option allows you to instantly reply to your customers. These are fixed replies set by the businesses to engage the customers. These messages can even be used as a counter reminder message if the customer doesn’t reply within 14 days.
WhatsApp and Facebook
Facebook and Whatsapp have been related since WhatsApp was merely an idea. WhatsApp founders Acton and Koum approached both Facebook and Twitter with their business model of an app primarily focused on instant messaging and end-to-end encryption rather than ads and revenue. This idea was rejected by both companies. Facebook’s a third of the revenue comes from the ads they run on their platform and thus it didn’t approve Acton and Koum’s idea.
Both Acton and Koum we’re against ads. WhatsApp over the years quickly grew and gained a lot of users. The same company that was rejected by Facebook was bought for a whopping amount of $ 19 billion US dollars in 2014. This was the milestone that WhatsApp hit. Now Facebook is well known for using private data to target ads and it’s the main reason to buy WhatsApp was to access the excessive private data exchanged by billions of people on WhatsApp. But WhatsApp’s founder’s main priority is to protect their users’ data and thus Facebook was allowed only limited access to WhatsApp’s data.
WhatsApp is today considered Facebook’s second-largest property after Instagram with a total of 2 billion users. WhatsApp makes $ 5 billion in annual revenue, and per user, revenue is estimated to be approximately $ 4 for the year 2020. Looking at its growth Whatsapp is growing by adding a million users per day.
Facebook helped WhatsApp to develop the WhatsApp Business App to increase the company’s revenue and help WhatsApp find an efficient revenue-generating system.
Facebook has plans to increase WhatsApp revenue by adding ads to its model as well. This ad model will help WhatsApp users access other businesses outside WhatsApp. The company plans to do it by introducing ads through status updates available on WhatsApp. This helps potential businesses reach customers through a more personalized platform. One more thing Facebook wants to do is recommend people using other platforms under Facebook, “WhatsApp businesses” to increase their sales. This model is a demo one and needs research to execute. Facebook’s idea of monetizing Whatsapp wasn’t liked by the founders, Koum and Acton. This was the main reason why Jan Koum left WhatsApp and Facebook in 2018.
WhatsApp is an instant messaging app completely ad-free and cost-free. The app is known for its end-to-end encryption feature that encodes a message while you send and decodes it when it reaches the person you share it with. This allows you to keep your data private and safe from getting exploited. WhatsApp also provides encrypted voice calls and video calls so it is completely safe to use it.
The app can be downloaded from Play Store and is a Google-approved and Facebook-owned app and quite safe to use.
WhatsApp and some of its recent features
- WhatsApp Disappearing Messages- This feature was introduced by WhatsApp in 2020 where a message would disappear after seven days of sending it. This can be turned on or off by the user and in WhatsApp groups, the messages can be set to disappear only by the group admins. It’s a great way to hide chats and keep your privacy.
- WhatsApp QR codes- WhatsApp recently worked on developing personalized QR codes for individual users and this allows others to access your contact easily through the help of these QR codes. These QR codes are a fun and easy way to get someone’s number on WhatsApp and start chatting. You can find your QR code in WhatsApp’s setting panel.
- Permanent mute option- For all those annoying family groups or college groups, the permanent mute option is a suitable match. Earlier you needed to choose whether you wanted to mute the group or person for 8 hours, 1 month, 6 months, or a year. But now this feature allows you to mute chats forever. This feature is available for both Android and iOS.
- WhatsApp finger lock feature- Whatsapp has worked on its lock feature and has introduced a finger lock system to secure your chats and calls. This feature is only available for phones having an-built finger sensing feature. Both Android and iOS users can access it.
- Dark Mode- For all those night owls WhatsApp has introduced its dark mode to ease the strain on your eyes while using the app at night. A dark mode is a valuable option that WhatsApp has provided its users. The feature is available for both Android and iOS.
Is WhatsApp a safe choice?
WhatsApp was initially introduced to help people engage with friends and family, ad-free and ask about their health or everyday happenings, and share personal moments. WhatsApp is trusted by a lot of individuals due to its end-to-end encryption feature that allows you to share personal moments with loved ones without fear.
This feature is the only reason why WhatsApp is considered the safest option among all other messaging apps and sites. But it has its problems too. Even though it encrypts your messages and calls it asks for your contact information at first which is part of your personal information and can be exploited.
WhatsApp’s privacy features can be changed according to your preferences. You can choose your visibility among your contacts as well as others who are not in your contacts. This helps in keeping you safe and your data private.
Recently there have been rumors about Facebook exploiting users’ data and this has hampered WhatsApp’s safety. It is confirmed by WhatsApp that Facebook cannot access users’ chats and calls but does access their profile if the user communicates with a business set up on WhatsApp business. It also shares the user’s IP addresses and their personal information like contact numbers, payment services used, etc.
All the information that WhatsApp collects can be accessed through their privacy policy where you get an option called “Information We Collect.”
Conclusion
WhatsApp has always been a trustworthy application and was initially developed to protect users’ privacy and provide them an app that would protect it at all costs. WhatsApp till today has protected individual privacy.
WhatsApp today has reached 2 billion users and is growing every day. This is the power of truth and authenticity.
