The time was right: Ramesh Ramanathan
January 27, 2018
Technology to help capture your family history for posterity
February 6, 2018

Social Network: Making sense of WhatsApp Business

When Facebook bought WhatsApp for an insane one lakh eighteen thousand crore rupees (US$19 Billion), I wondered how they will make money out of it. Well, there seems to be some indications of where the money could come from.

Chennai: Facebook recently announced that they have launched a WhatsApp version for businesses, specifically small businesses. Currently, they have gone live in the US, UK, Indonesia, Italy, and Mexico and is soon expected to the rest of the regions including India.

This news has been received very well from the business community especially in India where the WhatsApp usage is very large. They would like to reach their customers easily by using the new tool to send offers, quickly respond to messages and generate sales leads.

With over 30 crore people using WhatsApp in India, small businesses would love to use this medium to reach their target audience. Facebook’s sights are clearly on the 5 crore small businesses in India.

The interesting thing is that WhatsApp Business will be free to download much like the consumer version. So, how will WhatsApp make money? Well, not directly. Facebook’s strategy will be scaled up and drive up widespread usage. It clearly is in for the long haul. They are in no hurry to monetize and frankly, with such a healthy war chest, there is no pressure. Their priority is clearly user growth. Once they have near monopoly, Facebook could try out these possible steps.

They could launch a peer-to-peer payment system soon. It will be built on the country’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which allows for instant money transfers between bank accounts at no charge. If it does so, then it will go head-on with the current market leader PayTM, Google’s Tez, and the government’s own BHIM.

People are already comfortable with WhatsApp and there’s good likelihood for people to adopt this platform for money transfer. Charging commission on the money transfers could open up revenue opportunities.

They could follow suit the revenue streams that its competitors are doing. WeChat and Line make the bulk of their revenues through in-app purchases like stickers and games.

The third option could be advertising, something that WhatsApp has shied away from so far.

The global smart phone penetration is only growing with every month and without doubt WhatsApp adoption will continue to grow. If the initial reaction from other countries where WhatsApp business is active, is any indication, then it’s bound to do very well in India too.

— The author is a digital entrepreneur, professor of digital marketing and an author. He blogs at www.Kiruba.com

Source : http://www.dtnext.in/Lifestyle/LifeStyleTopNews/2018/01/29002643/1060012/Social-Network-Making-sense-of-WhatsApp-Business.vpf?TId=112136