WhatsApp, the popular cross platform messenger that has risen to fame on par with BlackBerry’s native system, BBM, is soon going to be moving to a subscription based model in a move to generate more revenue out from iOS users. Currently WhatsApp is running as a subscription based model on all platforms, Android, Symbian and Windows Phone, where users pay a mere $1 per year after free usage for the first year. But on iOS it is currently being offered as a one time payment app for a mere $0.99.
Talking to TechCrunch, WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said that for all new users on iOS the app will be free for the first year and will be running on subscription model the year onwards just like on any other platform right now. The pricing though has not been revealed yet. WhatsApp might be charging the same $1 from all of its users on iOS as well for every year of usage like it does on other platforms but there is every possibility of the price to be revised on all platforms in the future.
WhatsApp currently caters around 100 million users on Android alone and with an overall user base of around 200 million. The latest reports given out in January 2013 claim that WhatsApp has a traffic flow of around 7 billion inbound messages every day which is quite massive! The growth projects were forecasted at around 75% over four months back then which might soon be scaling up exponentially.