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A week ago, WhatsApp started testing verified accounts for businesses. The messaging service intends to create a business search engine with optional sponsored results. For this purpose, WhatsApp has finally decided to monetize the messaging app by charging large enterprise businesses for tools so that they can communicate with their customers on a better level. For small and medium sized businesses, WhatsApp also aims to provide a free app. but for that, no specific functionality has been outlined yet. The companies will be allowed to provide valuable notifications to their clients such as flight timings, delivery confirmations as well as many other updates.
According to the Chief operating officer of WhatsApp, the platform intends to charge businesses in future but the details of the monetization have not been figured out yet. With this update, the businesses existing in a user’s contact list will appear as whatever they register themselves instead of their numbers. It will make it possible for WhatsApp to create a business search engine to allow businesses cold-message customers for a fee.
“We do intend on charging businesses in the future,” WhatsApp’s Chief Operating Officer Matt Idema told the Wall Street Journal.
According to WhatsApp, the enterprise solution will initially be provided for free but business will be charged in future. The features offered by the Business app and the enterprise solution will include the ability to create a verified profile which will have all the information regarding the company. This information will have the address, description, and hours. Also, there will also be features for helping customers to manage chats such as away messages when the businesses are unable to respond.
In a short span of time, WhatsApp has earned over 1.3 billion monthly users and one billion daily users for the platform with its WhatsApp Status, WhatsApp has gained 250 million users on daily basis, and can host vertical video ads just like Instagram. With so much popularity, it seems the right time for the messaging service to earn revenue even from light advertising.
Via: Tech Crunch
