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WhatsApp's new privacy policy and the departure of some of its users to other applications such as Telegram or Signal still do not threaten its dominant position in the market or the doubt about how WhatsApp makes money in 2021 The application is completely free and does not offer ads, so it is logical that the user wonders where his income comes from.
It should be noted that clarity in the sources of income has not been one of the main features of Facebook or WhatsApp.Doubts about the protection of users' privacy lead to suspicions that data traffic for companies to better direct their campaigns is their main source of income.
What WhatsApp lives on
To find out what WhatsApp lives on, at least officially, it must be clarified that it was not always a free application. In the early 2010s, the first year of use was free but after that there was a small annual subscription of one dollar, which in Spain was set at 89 euro cents.
That Annual subscription WhatsApp was forgotten years ago, completely eliminating it in 2016. "We have realized that this model has not worked well. Many users do not have a debit or credit card and were worried about losing contact with their friends and family after the first year," the company explained at the time, despite having more than 700 million active users at the time.
That decision came after Facebook had already acquired WhatsApp for almost 14 billion euros. Without a doubt, this was one of the operations that have surprised the most in the technological field so far this century.
WhatsApp Business
The next step in the evolution of WhatsApp to earn money was the creation of WhatsApp Business This service is aimed above all at SMEs with with the objective of being able to communicate with its customers in an easier way and it was launched in several countries before arriving in Spain.
WhatsApp Business is based on a freemium model (business in which part of the services are offered free), with some particularities of payment that are not precisely specified in the company's blog. The commissions to the companies that are part of this service are emerging as a possible way of income in the near future, as well as the inclusion of in WhatsApp states.
Since January 1, 2021, WhatsApp has also launched its own transfer payment system, WhatsApp Pay, to send money to friends and family via mobile. For now it works only in India. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, assured after its launch that “it has no cost and is backed by more than 140 banks. And being WhatsApp, it's also secure and private.”
How Facebook makes money
Much better known are the strategies that explain how Facebook, the parent company, makes money. The sale of ads on the social network is the main source of income for Mark Zuckerberg's company. The personalization of what we receive in our profiles thanks to the data we provide is one of the permanent topics of debate regarding data protection.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Demand for Facebook ads has increased from all types of businesses Commerce Email through this social network has also been boosted in recent months at a faster pace than usual.
The suspicion that WhatsApp shared data with Facebook for years has been supported by several renowned figures, such as Jan Koum, one of its founders, and more recently by Chris Daniels, who has been in charge of WhatsApp since 2018.
