WhatsApp went from being a poster child to an ugly donkey in my country (Uzbekistan & other countries in Central Asia). Just two years ago everyone I knew was using WhatsApp, and what happened now? Most people use either Viber or Telegram, because uploading/downloading pics on WhatsApp takes forever.
WhatsApp had a POTENTIALLY massive commercial use here and they blew it with paid subscriptions (which people in my country can't pay through Apple/Google stores). So people started switching their mobile numbers to get back into WhatsApp, which actually was really bad for WhatsApp but they blindly saw that as success. Their growth team probably said: "We are killing it because more and more people are signing up!" Yeah, but what's the churn rate? It's probably huge as well. These unique mobile users that they counted were actually the same people who couldn't find a way to pay.
Ok, so if anyone from Whatsapp happened to read my post, here is how you can make (or could have made) money:
- Charge businesses to communicate with their clients through WhatsApp. This is very straightforward -- businesses need A MAC/PC CLIENT for their team to talk to customers. I know our tech company wanted it, but you wouldn't let third party clients exist. So we sticked with Viber and Telegram. Luckily regular users also ditched WhatsApp.
And look, we were not the only ones who needed it. The guy selling shoes/clothes would show products through WhatsApp. The local florist would show what he had available on particular day through pics on WhatsApp. Then he got tired of sending these pics to everyone, so he wanted to have these pics in his profile page. So who offered multiple pics in the profile? Telegram did. As much as I hated their deceptive claim about "being the most secure app", they actually managed to listen to users.
It's awesome to read about use cases in countries I know little about. Viber, Telegram for direct marketing? Wow. How do people decide to join? How do you do ad's?
Just like in Argentina in '11 I was amazed that all SME had Facebooks, and were just skipping the website-part I was used to.
Funny how local circumstances (might your Whatsapp problem just be an upload-to-US problem?) create different business environments. It reminds me that country-specific network and adoption effect exist and matter.
Doing business in countries like Uzbekistan is tough because of inability to get payments. But there is a solution to that and it's called MIDDLE MAN.
For example, Facebook ads are really picking up here. Of course, most small businesses cannot pay to Facebook directly due to tight payment regulations. So what happens? A middle man comes in. He signs up as a Facebook partner (or regular user), finds small local businesses that pay him extra and then he pays Facebook through his internationally accepted cards to show ads belonging to others.
I have no doubt that if American companies came here and tried a little, they would quickly realize that Uzbeks are entrepreneurs, who can be good partners and can make lots of money.
Even the ideas that I see pop up in the United States have been implemented here long time ago. For instance, we had car-sharing service in Uzbekistan since I was a child -- we just didn't have GPS and mobile phones to make an Uber, so we had middle men finding riders and putting them into one car. Then the driver would pay a fee for that.
Same thing with delivery -- we had delivery services, which you could call, so they could find the closest person to you (or the store/pharmacy) and deliver the items quickly. You would just pay cash to the driver (which of course had to be trustworthy-- otherwise delivery service wouldn't work with them)
What you call a "Middle Man" is also known as a "Market Maker" or a "Liquidity Provider". He takes on the risk of connecting supply and demand in order to profit from the bid/ask spread.
The "Middle Man" has been replaced with technology because it's more efficient and enables more liquidity than an actual man or a network of men could.
If you see solutions popping up in Uzbekistan for basic logistical problems such as transportation and delivery, perhaps you should try to implement them elsewhere? I would be interested to hear more examples that could be implemented elsewhere in the world.
> Viber, Telegram for direct marketing? Wow. How do people decide to join? How do you do ad's?
I've lived in a country where LINE, an IM/Call/Video/Games/etc is hugely popular.
Companies have official accounts which works for a couple of reasons:
1. Sometimes they gets automatically added to your list I think. I might have just forgotten how I got them though do don't quote me on this.
2. App specific promotions "follow us for xy and z". I guess this is the ads you're wondering about, it's basically a "100%" impression rate towards costumers you already know is interested in your brand.
3. Stickers are something that are huuuuge. Companies can create their own cute ones that obviously include the logo in one way or another. People then get them for free or buy them. I think companie pay to have them in the store for free, while paid stickers gives LINE a cut.
4. General curiosity from costumers, "Hm I wonder if AirAsia has a LINE account, maybe they have some discount there?"
Obviously you can block each account if you so please.
what is annoying for me is unreliability of delivery of messages. some never get to target phone! Simple scenario - I send messages 1, 2, 3. All three gets delivery on target phone (double gray "hook"), first one gets to be read (hooks turn blue), second doesn't, third does. Country - Switzerland. Both platforms - android.
Just one step away from moving away from whatsapp, considering competition offers sometimes much more (ie viber - emoticons, childish but lovely way to talk to my gf :))
WhatsApp had a POTENTIALLY massive commercial use here and they blew it with paid subscriptions (which people in my country can't pay through Apple/Google stores). So people started switching their mobile numbers to get back into WhatsApp, which actually was really bad for WhatsApp but they blindly saw that as success. Their growth team probably said: "We are killing it because more and more people are signing up!" Yeah, but what's the churn rate? It's probably huge as well. These unique mobile users that they counted were actually the same people who couldn't find a way to pay.
Ok, so if anyone from Whatsapp happened to read my post, here is how you can make (or could have made) money: - Charge businesses to communicate with their clients through WhatsApp. This is very straightforward -- businesses need A MAC/PC CLIENT for their team to talk to customers. I know our tech company wanted it, but you wouldn't let third party clients exist. So we sticked with Viber and Telegram. Luckily regular users also ditched WhatsApp.
And look, we were not the only ones who needed it. The guy selling shoes/clothes would show products through WhatsApp. The local florist would show what he had available on particular day through pics on WhatsApp. Then he got tired of sending these pics to everyone, so he wanted to have these pics in his profile page. So who offered multiple pics in the profile? Telegram did. As much as I hated their deceptive claim about "being the most secure app", they actually managed to listen to users.