If you have been using WhatsApp for more than five years now, you must be aware that WhatsApp used to charge some money from users after their one-year free trial expired. However, later on, the company made the application free for use across all the platforms. Well, it now seems this Facebook owned company is looking to make some money as it has reportedly started testing business tools to generate some revenue.
According to a report by Reuters, WhatsApp has started testing business chat tools which would help them generate revenue through their app. With this system, businesses would be able to talk directly with their customers. While WhatsApp doesn’t charge its users now, it would certainly charge businesses for using these tools to get in touch with their customers.
WhatsApp has teamed up with some Y Combinator startups to test this new system. Also, while WhatsApp would let businesses contact their customers, it is taking extra measures to prevent misuse of this service and avoid spam messages. WhatsApp is also doing a survey to get an idea of how often its users contact businesses on WhatsApp.
There have also been reports of WhatsApp for Business being tested in India, and given the fact that India has more than 200 Million monthly active users, it’s not a bad idea after all. We will hopefully hear more directly from WhatsApp after it’s done testing the feature in India.
By the way, would you like being contacted by businesses on WhatsApp?
