Digital Indian Gov

WhatsApp recently shared the news that 1 billion people are using their app daily, and this indeed a phenomenal number. But the eternal question which has always excited tech observers was that, how will WhatsApp monetize this mega user base?

After giving a hint last year, WhatsApp has finally revealed their plan #1 for monetization; and from the looks of it, it seems pretty exciting; at least for businesses.

In their blog post, announcing this new strategy, they have said, “WhatsApp is exploring ways for you to communicate with the businesses that matter to you.”

• Verified businesses will now green get a tick badge, something like Facebook and Twitter’s verified accounts: clip_image002. Hence, when a normal WhatsApp user starts chatting with a green badge holding business number, then it means it’s a business chat, paid by that business.
• The colour within the chat shall be yellow, which is another indicator for business chat.
• These messages cannot be deleted
• In case you have not stored the business number with a name, then the name which business has chosen for themselves will be visible to the end user
• And yes, users can also block these businesses from contacting them
• WhatsApp Monetization: Future Plans
• Last year, WhatsApp’s co-founder and CEO Jan Koum had provided us with a hint of monetization plans for them.

Koum had said that time: “Naturally, people might wonder how we plan to keep WhatsApp running without subscription fees and if today’s announcement means we’re introducing third-party ads. The answer is no.”

Samsung users will be able to choose PayPal as their preferred method of payment in-app, online and in retail stores through the Samsung Pay mobile payments platform, the companies announced today. The strategic partnership will initially be available to Samsung Pay users in the United States before expanding to other countries, says Samsung.

To increase its adoption in-store, PayPal last year partnered with major stakeholders like Visa and MasterCard for store payments. And in April 2017, PayPal said it would work with Android Pay as well, to support both mobile payments in apps and those in brick-and-mortar retailers. 

That said, Samsung Pay is not yet one of the most-used payment technologies in the U.S., according to recent data. 

According to a Boston Retail Partners survey on mobile payments released earlier this year, Apple Pay now has the largest percentage of supporting U.S. merchants, with 36 percent accepting the technology, up from 16 percent the year before.

PayPal was a close second with 34 percent acceptance, followed by MasterCard PayPass (25%), Android Pay (24%), Visa Checkout (20%), Samsung Pay (18%), Chase Pay (11%) and private label mobile wallets with 4%.

PayPal and Samsung already had a working partnership in place ahead of this new deal. For instance, PayPal and Samsung worked together on mobile payments back in 2014, and was added as a payment method in Samsung smart TVs the following year.