In this internet age, when every other internet company is trying to collect your data in order to serve more contextual advertisements for the sake of their quarterly report, it is very astonishing and refreshing to see that there are companies, who don’t believe in selling ads.
And, WhatsApp Messenger is a brilliant example of that, because they don’t believe in selling ads, and that is why it is the most favoured real time messenger mobile app right now.
What makes WhatsApp a unique and different product?
In the times when companies like Google, Yahoo, Facebook etc., were still developing, the entire focus was on building a world class product, the internet market was still in nascent stage, as time progressed and internet penetration increased and so the consumer base; That product image got transformed into a service image and then the entire focus was on serving right ads to the right audience. Data mining got the driver’s seat, where several engineers worked days and nights, writing codes for better collection of user’s data just for generating better performing ads!!!
WhatsApp, since its inception in 2009, has maintained their core offering,
(and here we can’t ignore the competition and challenges faced by any product startup in this age), which is truly a remarkable branding and engineering marvel.
And a testimony to the above statement is that now most of us check our WhatsApp messenger when we get up every morning.
The idea is simple – Simple, No Nonsense design and yes, an ads-free interface.
WhatsApp is not at all interested in the data of its users, the engineering team generally spends most of its day fixing bugs, streamlining the UX and keeping the service affordable for WhatsApp users.
Where WhatsApp stands today?
- 400 million monthly active users,
- 400 million photos are shared each day,
- Handles more than 10 billion messages each day,
And to our surprise, the team strength of WhatsApp is 11-50 employees, as listed on their LinkedIn Page, now that’s really cool!
Success of WhatsApp and other closed group messaging services indicate that social media is now moving back towards the idea of having more personalized conversations rather than open discussions.
Share your thoughts with us on what makes WhatsApp an incredible product!
Data Source: Wikipedia ; Image Source: dnaindia.com
