WhatsApp is the largest social networking application which you will ever see in your life. If you will look at the downloads then the app has been downloaded more than 1 Billion times just from Play Store. The best cross-platform application which you will ever see. Ever wondered how WhatsApp Makes Money?
You and billions of users are using WhatsApp daily and you don’t pay a penny and do you think Mark Zuckerberg is good enough and lets you use the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp for free?
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History WhatsApp
WhatsApp was founded by Brian Acton and Jan Koum in the year 2009. The first decided to launch it for free and then for an annual subscription of just 99 cents.
Woah! That’s it? 99 Cents? The question rises here who will pay for it? We Indians like free stuff. We Indians didn’t pay for it but the countries such as Europe, United States, and many countries were paying for WhatsApp.
There were 700 Million WhatsApp users who paid for it and they earned a lot of money from WhatsApp. The best part of WhatsApp was No Ads, No Games, and No Gimmicks.
WhatsApp didn’t even spend a single penny on marketing and you know the craze for WhatsApp and whenever you buy a new phone the first app which you install is WhatsApp. That’s was fine and later in 2014 Facebook decided to buy WhatsApp.
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Why Facebook Bought WhatsApp For 19 Billion?
WhatsApp was good enough and after knowing that Mark Zuckerberg decided to buy WhatsApp for 19 Billion Dollars. That was the largest deal for a venture capital backed company, and that time the annual budget of NASA was 17.6 Billion Dollars in 2014.
There are around 70% people who always use WhatsApp and there were a lot of competitors came in the market with new features such as Telegram which was having the look of WhatsApp but it couldn’t beat WhatsApp.
Fun Fact
Do you want to hear a fun fact? Both Koum and Acton after leaving Yahoo in 2007 were rejected at Facebook when they applied for jobs. If you don’t have a job no need to be sad.
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How WhatsApp Makes Money?
When Facebook bought WhatsApp In the year 2014 the annual subscription fees was removed from WhatsApp and then you can use WhatsApp for free.
Wait for a second!
Here comes a thought in your mind!
Mark bought WhatsApp for 19 Billion Dollars and allows you to use it for free. Once a wise man said.
If you’re not paying for the product you are the product.
Facebook did a huge investment and in return, they are getting the data. Which Data? Your data you are chatting with your friends, parents and family members a lot of users. They can earn money from you. You can’t roll out from this because you are the product. This is how marketing works.
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What is 256-Bit Encryption?
You might be thinking that How Facebook knows this data? I have end-to-end encryption and WhatsApp promised no one can check the data. Yes, you are right! No one can check the data except for Facebook. Do anything and you are tracked.
As a WhatsApp user, you are giving your Personal Data and Contact list to Facebook and they use that data to serve you better ads and a lot more the best part is when you see your contact list friend on Facebook suggestions don’t get shocked but they have got the data from you.
If you see your neighborhood shop is having a sale this is because of you and you are giving your data to Facebook and Instagram because Facebook is the parent company of Instagram.
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When Did you Allow Facebook to Share the Data?
In August 2016 WhatsApp came with a new Privacy Policy in which you can opt-in or opt-out to share the data with Facebook and if you have Opt-out you are still sharing your information to Facebook.
Now, Facebook has your personal data and he can use your data to give you better ads and better user experience and you might see the same ads appear on Facebook again and again.
FORBES estimates that this strategy could make WhatsApp generate 5 Billion dollar revenue by 2020. Now you know that how WhatsApp is making money with the help of you.
Final Verdict:
If you are using Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp for free and without ads, you don’t need to think how they are making money. Now you know how they are making money.
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