A new mobile messaging service application owned by Facebook called "WhatsApp" is now reported to have a billion users every month. It's similar to Kakao Talk which is dominant in South Korea, WeChat in China and Line in Japan but so far, WhatsApp is the internationally successful one with billions of users. It now outperforms the Social Network's own mobile app "Messenger" which only has around 800 million users. The performance of the said app is said to be contributed to its pure focus on communication and it is light on monetisation. Other apps have comparatively focused more on monetisation, games and stickers. Here's a link on the more detailed story: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35459812
I certainly wouldn't call whatsapp new, it's been around for quite a while. But yeah it's a really handy app, I use it basically as a free version of SMS and for group chats which.
It's been around for years! Originally it was free for the first year and then you paid a small fee, but recently they announced it was dropping the fee, so it is now free. It's good for international communications, so you can communicate in real time for free. I also like it because you can see when someone was last seen, although for some people they would prefer that not to be known.
Taking into account the fact that whatsapp is now free I think all that "light on monetization" stuff won't last long. They'll have to find ways to make money from the app and they will but I doubt that seeing a few ads would make whatsapp users stop using the app. It's free after all.
I've also been using whatsapp for a while now, and I have to say, even though considering it is run by Facebook I've had no issues with it. Even if whatsapp does go down the route of advertising then it still wouldn't stop me using it to be honest, as long as it stays working as well as it does now of course.
It really depends how it's done. I don't mind small ads somewhere where you won't click on them by accident. I do mind big, colourful, noisy things. Or worst of all, those positioned so that you accidentally open it. (this is of course great for them as they get a click and not just a view on the ad) If it's done properly, it won't make me stop using whatsapp. If it's done in a way where the ads get in my way then that app will be out in a heartbeat, there are always alternatives.
Hmmm...I haven't used WhatsApp actually. I'm not from China but we usually use WeChat. It is quite a good app, I'd say even better than Viber. It doesn't constantly freeze or lag unlike Viber or the video chat in Facebook Messenger. It has a very simple user interface and you'll be familiar with it easily. But I'll try WhatsApp just to compare the two. Lol.
