Kellen
WhatsApp, the global messaging phenomenon, announced today that it will no longer charge subscription fees for use of its apps. That means WhatsApp will be 100% free going forward.
In the past, WhatsApp was free to most for the first year of service after sign-up. Once that year long period ended, you needed to pay a $0.99 annual subscription to keep the service going. That’s going away because many of WhatsApp’s users don’t have a credit card and the company is afraid that they’ll lose these users who can’t pay the $1 per year to keep it going.
So does that mean ads are coming? WhatsApp says no, but that they will be testing partnerships with businesses and organizations that “you want to hear from.” That could mean flight notifications in WhatsApp or a bank communicating with you about fraudulent charges on an account. At least, those are the two examples they have provided to us.
Using WhatsApp? Thoughts?
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