How do you go from a simple idea to a service that connects the planet? The history of Whatsapp is intrinsically linked to the development of new uses of communication.. Faster than email and less intrusive than calling, the messaging app is now essential for most of the planet. Why? Why ? How ?
In the beginning there was (or almost) Yahoo
Who knows the origin of WhatsApp? Who knew it was originally two former Yahoo engineers determined to lead the wave of applicants? Brian Acton and Jan Koum associated with a Russian developer Start Whatsapp in a garage or almost. Almost unusable at first, the system owes its early success to Apple’s push notifications.
They then raise $25,000 in funds from their friends to develop and gradually deploy on different operating systems. The application went from: 250,000 users in 2009, 200 million at the end of 2013 and finally 1 billion today. After the takeover in 2014, the company continued to grow as it celebrated its billion monthly users a little less than a year ago!
Free access at the heart of Whatsapp’s success
Officially Whatsapp has been a paid app for a long time. After 1 year of use, you normally had to pay a 99 cents subscription to continue using it. However, the payout rate should be close to Winrar’s. Paying to continue using the service was not strictly mandatory. In January 2016, the company terminated the subscription for this reason.
However, at that time, the company’s statement must have caught our attention. “Naturally, people may wonder how we plan to keep whatsapp running without subscription and if today’s announcement means we’re making third-party ads available. Answer is no. Starting this year, we will test tools that allow you to communicate with companies and organizations that interest you…”
Now things can change if the Whatsapp model is built on free. A job offer released at the end of July indicates that the service is currently seriously considering monetizing it. Of course, there is still no guarantee that it is the users who will have to withdraw the debit card directly. Even more so, third-party services and/or monetize user data. However, this will not be new for both Whatsapp and parent company Facebook. Data sharing between the two services was also condemned by Germany’s UFC Que Choisir at the beginning of the year.
On the other hand, charging users would go against the very essence of Whatsapp, which is free and above all ad-free. on the market, Our subscriptions didn’t have unlimited SMS yet.the ability to send thousands of messages for free was a real revolution, with huge savings in households.
You are your number on WhatsApp
Eliminate interest in SMS and MMS during (with the notable exception of France). the importance of our phone number now. This is perhaps the main trick of Whatsapp. Unlike many other services, in Whatsapp your number is like your identity card.
No need to create an ID and add contacts manually. Just have them in your address book and the app will automatically find them (prefixes with difficulty for travelers). Your classic contacts are your WhatsApp contacts. No unpleasant surprises, spammers or strangers approaching you.
The last important point for this strategy to work is that the app is available on all operating systems. First released on the iPhone in November 2009, the app reached BlackBerry and then Android in the months that followed. you can do it today use on any smartphone, tablet or even computer no problem.
WeChat, the danger from China
Whatsapp or WeChat? Unless you’re in China or haven’t lived there recently, you’ll likely use the first of the two apps. While the Chinese version of WeChat was still the world’s #1 messaging app in 2013, Whatsapp is now number one“Fight” with Facebook Messenger. However, the war is probably still far from over.
Currently, each app focuses on its own market, WeChat in China and Whatsapp most of the rest of the world. But the Chinese company has reached a stage where it can no longer grow in the country except to make money on its own, as WhatsApp thinks. “He wants to be WeChat an all-in-one store that can meet all the daily needs of its users»explained analyst Elinor Leung In the columns of salvation at the beginning of the year.
If the current monetization operation is successful, the company may decide to export. then he would have liquidity of a booming market at your disposal but also the support of the Chinese government, which is aware of the pearl it is holding. What should shake Facebook and Whatsapp? We’ll probably have to wait to find out…
