In a recent development, Facebook owned Whatsapp has just announced plans to drop its annual subscription fee of $0.99. The firm says that this decision is to enable millions of prospective users join the platform for free without the burden of having to pay its subscription fees.
The firm reasons that a lot of its users do not have access to debit or credit cards and as such may experience difficulties making payments. One would then think that the company may have plans to spam the platform with unwanted third-party ads but whatsapp strongly maintains that this isn’t so.
The company however, is looking to generate revenue through the introduction of enterprise tools that will foster better communications between businesses and their customers.
The decision to chuck its annual subscription fees may not have made any difference to Nigerians who barely made any payments to the company in the past but here’s hoping that the introduction of its new business tools will help give SMEs a boost in their media activities even as businesses seek to expand their client base. This might just be the break-through we have all been waiting for.
