We saw Facebook be rebranded as Meta and take over WhatsApp for a staggering $22 billion. And in case you didn’t already know, it’s a huge sum of money. Over a span of five years, we’ve seen it increase by nearly 400 million users, and today, it’s the company’s biggest acquisition. Yet, there are concerns because it’s fallen short in terms of recouping the initial investment made.
As a whole, the app has produced just $29 billion as far as revenue is concerned. And most of it has to do with digital advertising. That’s a drop from the results seen in 2021 and can be called the company’s first decline as far as revenue is concerned.
So the news of slow growth, fewer users, and poor stocks isn’t what Meta had planned for. And now, it makes sense why authorities are trying to unlock the app’s real potential and may convert it into a starting ‘super-app’, something that’s similar to the likes of WeChat from China.
But it’s not going to be easy as announced by the company’s VP for Meta’s business messaging. It’s going to be a real challenge to create an entity above that seen on the current existing platform.
Meta is thinking outside the box and if that means pushing boundaries to create the best business marketing plans out there, then so be it. Think along the lines of enterprises using the WhatsApp platform to chat, market, and serve their clients via texts. As it is, the pandemic proved to us how so many people around the globe were keen on using the app for their business communications.
So it’s used heavily but severely under-monetized, where’s the logic in that? It appears that there was a point where WhatsApp simply reached a point of frustration. But now, Meta’s heads are trying to provide new models for monetization such as ads.
Currently, advertisers are the firm’s best bet at revenue generation. They’re paying for messages that prompt texts via the app. This is better-called click-to-message or click-for WhatsApp ads. It’s a type of advertising but just not like what was seen a few years back, which had to be aborted.
But the app has been in this position before and experts feel that it could have started to make revenue in huge amounts a while back. So is it really too late now, well, experts believe yes? It’s confusing why it took so many people this much time to realize that it’s struggling and needs to make some real money.
At the start, WhatsApp was hailed as a billion-person entity that was on the search for making business. Today, it’s a two billion-person entity and still has trouble finding the right business strategy.
While classic means for digital advertising worked well for Facebook, it proved to be a disaster for WhatsApp and now, the app is using other means to get revenue. This means mining the behaviors of others on the app, mostly small-scale businesses situated in the international market that are sending texts to their customers. Similarly, they’re filling up orders and even conducting operations via the app in places like Brazil, Mexico, India, and Indonesia. These happen to be the app’s biggest global markets so it’s a great situation.
WhatsApp’s executives also would like to create more revenue via API business models and even make sales from customer service software. It won't be easy but it’s high time such experiments were done to get the app churning money.
We can envision the app getting a hold of some exciting new features that assist it in following in the footsteps of a Super app like WeChat. It’s a huge possibility where users can text, order, purchase, and even pay through a single app. But we won’t lie, the term ‘super-app’ is known as a taboo term and many avoid its usage. Let’s see if the plans really do unfold for the better and we’ll keep you updated.
H/T: Insider
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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World
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