Facebook has revealed that the company is looking to put steps in place to monetise the messaging app, WhatsApp.
Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 in a deal worth $22 billion. At the time of the deal, WhatsApp was generating little revenue but the purchase price was slightly more than the market value of Sony.
The messaging service, used by more than a billion people every day, will test new features to make it easier for people to communicate with businesses they want to reach on WhatsApp, the company said in ablog post.
“We’re building and testing new tools via a free WhatsApp Business app for small companies and an enterprise solution for bigger companies operating at a large scale with a global base of customers, like airlines, e-commerce sites and banks,” according to the blog post.
WhatsApp has already started a pilot programme that would feature a green badge next to a business contact, indicating the business was verified by the messaging service.
“We do intend on charging businesses in the future,” COO Matt Idema told theJournal in an interview.
It was reported in March 2017 that a potential revenue source for WhatsApp was to charge businesses that want to contact customers, citing company documents.
Since acquiring the messaging service, Facebook has not put its focus on monetising the app. That however started to change in July 2017 as the app started displaying ads in an attempt to further monetise the platform.
Idema declined to describe the paid features or say when they would make their debut, according to the report. “We don’t have the details of monetisation figured out,” he told the Journal.
No comments