Two ways WhatsApp can begin to make money

A Designer’s Perspective

For this article I will not beat about the bush for too long as this has been a hot topic from the moment Facebook acquired WhatsApp. When I’m not busy I think about other products and how to better them and this was one of those, well, looks like I’m beating about the bush already so on to the point.

The two ways WhatsApp can begin to generate revenue are by using ads on groups and promoted media on the status page. How?

Groups

Groups are not as personal as chats thus this makes them less volatile to ads as a lot of people already advertise and market their products and services on a number of groups, having sponsored ads in groups would simply be another thing for users to look at or ignore.

Having groups on their own would ensure that what’s personal (chats) remains personal and a user can venture into the wild by choice.

The first step would be to have groups on their own screen, the groups button would be on the far left side of the screen where quick access to uploading on the status currently is, the status already has its own screen and you can also upload to your status even from their gallery hence there would be much taken away from the user. Having groups on their own would ensure that what’s personal (chats) remains personal and a user can venture into the wild by choice. Some groups are also private thus users/admins would be given the choice to either have their groups as personal (remain in chats) or public (moved to groups), be found upon searching and have ads.

A search button would also do good so that users would be able to search for any group and join it at will. Groups can also work as pages for co-operates where companies and businesses can engage with their customers. On these business groups, all the corporate/admin chats would appear on one side say the left and all other chats (from customers) would be on the right for easy distinction.

There are thousands of WhatsApp groups already, what remains is to explore the many options that they can bring as revenue generators. PS. This may mean increasing the number of people who can be in a group to a good number or linking groups so that I can see what’s in but not have to join.

Status Updates

This part is really quite straight forward. Status updates are viewed mostly for entertainment even when they are used by some for advertising, advertising has to be entertaining. WhatsApp can introduce another segment pictured above for promoted updates only where users can choose whether to view the updates or not, the updates would also be clearly labelled to show the company or business.

Status updates are already short so that can be checked off, the only other thing they have to be is fun and entertaining to watch. The key is to keep it meme simple, personalized and not to overdo it. Find more about status updates on the previous article.

The above is just but a scratch on the surface as to how WhatsApp can begin to fill up it’s cash registers, the rest is left to the product team but the question will still remain as to whether or not, subtly or obviously and how this will happen.