Experts say that when the product is free, the product is you and this was the maxim that Facebook used when it came to suppressing the license payment for the use of WhatsApp a few years ago. In 2023 everything is going to change, the META debacle on the stock market and the waste of tons of money in the development of the metaverse will force the company to look for new sources of income.
The company founded by Mark Zuckerberg will close the year with a drop in the markets close to 70%translated into money supposes lose more than 700,000 million dollars with respect to their historical highs that were drilled on September 10, 2021. In addition to the general fall in the markets due to the rise in interest rates and uncertainty at the macroeconomic level, the social network has been defrauding quarter after quarter to its investors and in the last results it registered a 52% drop in your net profit. Meta also invoiced 4% less at the same time that it increased its investment in the development of its virtual world that will leave a hole in the annual accounts of more than 10,000 million dollars.
To reverse this situation, the social network that owns Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp urgently needs to increase its income and the first fishing ground to fish will be the popular messaging network. With more than 2,000 million active users around the world, the company knows that charging a testimonial figure will hardly subtract active users and for this reason it proposes the payment by subscription of $0.89 per year. In Spain the fee will be 1 euro. It is nothing new if we look back, before 2014 and before the operation was closed WhatsApp already charged a fee to users who used Android, in the case of iOS the use of the service was always free, but, those responsible for The company at that time did not give more details about this differentiation either.
Advertising on WhatsApp and business accounts
In the United States, personalized ads will also arrive in group WhatsApp chats. In Europe at the moment the company is not going to launch any initiative related to advertising because it collides head-on with the regulation on data protection. In the old continent, META does raise an additional fee for business accounts that use the platform as an official customer service channel or sales platform. We remind you that both Facebook and Instagram offer the possibility of creating product windows and contacting the seller directly by WhatsApp. This will be one of the cases in which the company will raise the payment for use.
Payment only through Google Pay or Apple Pay
The company has explained in a statement that as of January 9th users will start receiving a notification to pay the annual fee. Likewise, META will allow the use of WhatsApp without going through the checkout until March 31, 2023, the date on which the first quarter closes, so we will not see the new income reflected until the second quarter of the year. According to Goldman Sachs analysts, this measure will contribute to the company between 1,500 and 2,000 million dollars a year, which will mean a rise of close to 10% compared to the previous year. The markets have been picking up the new measures adopted by the company for more than a month and its shares have recovered more than 30% despite the fact that the Nasdaq is practically at annual lows.
UPDATE: This information was published on December 28, when the Day of the Innocent Saints is celebrated in Spain. The custom of this day is to make jokes of all kinds and we take advantage of the media to launch this type of news. Happy April Fools Day!
