It is difficult to conceive of instant messaging as a paid service, since platforms like WhatsApp or Telegram have developed, in part, thanks to their free nature. This didn’t happen in the early days of smartphones, BlackBerry is a good example: accessing BBM required paying for the service, like SMS (messaging itself was unlimited). Even though there was a time when WhatsApp was paid, I paid five-year subscription. In advance.
WhatsApp has become almost essential, a software more used than the phone itself. The communication possibilities are its main attraction, but there is another quality that has ended up elevating WhatsApp above even SMS: the first are free, they are included in the Internet access. But at first it wasn’t like that, I can attest to that.
Paid on iOS; free download and with subscription on Android
We have already forgotten that instant messaging once had a cost for the user: SMS was literally a ruin; Therefore, any service that could match the speed of SMS, eliminating the cost of bouncing, was a guarantee of success. Before WhatsApp, This success was achieved by BlackBerry Messenger. Better known as BBM.
I have always been surprised by the success of professional smartphones of the caliber of BlackBerry among young users, even if the company and the operator charged for the subscription service (BIS, BlackBerry’s Internet service). Before iPhone and Android became popular, The Most Wanted Mobile Phones Featured a Non-Touch Screen and a Physical QWERTY Keyboard, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 and company. For one reason: all messages will be included in BlackBerry’s Internet service.
I didn’t have a BlackBerry at the time of the BBM explosion, the business style didn’t really convince me despite the message. Yes, I bought my first iPhone, then the iPhone 3GS and my first Android, the phone that made me fall in love with the system bought by Google: the HTC Magic. WhatsApp came to my phones when almost no one knew about this application.
iPhone owners bought WhatsApp, Android owners had to subscribe
A year and a half after its launch, and when Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, sent me access to the Android beta, I also downloaded it on iPhone. On iOS, WhatsApp has implemented a paywall for downloads (I bought it for 0.79 dollars in August 2010); On Android, the download was free, WhatsApp offered a free year and now charged 0.89 dollars (In the first years, the service was paid $1.99.I have receipts from 2010 and 2011).
First year of subscribing to WhatsApp on Android
Yes, WhatsApp cost money before Facebook bought the app. I remember the complaints from users about this almost euro that you had to pay via the application, about 0.89 dollars that, in practice, almost no one paid. WhatsApp’s tactic was to extend the payment without canceling the service (I don’t know anyone who, at that time, had their WhatsApp canceled for not having paid the subscription).
WhatsApp charged 0.89 dollars per year of use, but in reality almost no one paid: the company extended the account without canceling it (even without charging).
Currently, the fact that Facebook WhatsApp’s meta control and use of metadata as an advantage in its dealings with other companies is seen as something negative, but when Zuckerberg’s company bought the messaging app, the perspective was the opposite: There was great joy in knowing that WhatsApp has finally become a 100% free application.. By not continuing to pay these 0.89 dollars per year, we ended up selling our usage. From my point of view, I think we lost.
I paid for five years of WhatsApp two and a half years before it was free
Five years of WhatsApp subscription on Android
And without anyone around me ever paying for the app, I might add. I’ve always believed that good service deserves adequate payment, after all no one works for free (or shouldn’t). For me, instant messaging is a fundamental pillar of our society, it is the main reason why the smartphone is currently a common object. And further: Apps like WhatsApp have made smartphones cheaper to where they are today.
Yes, I paid via WhatsApp and I don’t regret it. And I also paid for a subscription to Telegram: if I use the application, and I consider that it adds value to my daily life, I believe that offering direct feedback to the developers is an act of justice. As long as the price is like that, fair: on WhatsApp, it was.
Cover image | Ivan Linares
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