It paid $22 billion for the platform, yet it was still unable to make money off of it.
The metaverse requires ongoing investment and is not currently a source of hard currency, at least not yet. Mark Zuckerberg is searching for methods to finance his virtual trip without inflicting bleeding as a result.
Profits are expected to come from WhatsApp and, to a lesser extent, Messenger, which are currently its workhorses. Due to the lack of adverts and a membership model, these messaging services do not generate any profit.
This choice would need a complete 180-degree reversal in corporate tactics. Because the accounts in Meta are not closing, management has been compelled to make a round of record layoffs that has resulted in the reduction of 13% of its employees.
At this case, Zuckerberg would have acknowledged in a meeting that the company had better chances to make money quickly by investing in programs that haven’t shown themselves to be trustworthy.
According to Reuters, the CEO of Meta would have remarked, “We speak a lot about long-term potential like the metaverse, but the fact is that corporate messaging will probably be the next key pillar of our business as we seek to monetize more WhatsApp and Messenger.”
He did not go into great depth about his plan during this discussion, but he is currently, as he had already anticipated, working on a subscription for WhatsApp’s commercial features.
This will enable the addition of some distinctive features to help WhatsApp Business users’ businesses grow. As it has previously been demonstrated in certain application beta versions.
The potential revenue streams include commissions for sending money between contacts. Furthermore, premium users can only access advanced features through in-app purchases.
WhatsApp, not for sale
Zuckerberg invested 22,000 million dollars on WhatsApp eight years ago, but he has only been able to charge slightly more than 10% of that sum. In contrast, Instagram saw rapid financial success.
Expanding the functions of WhatsApp and Messenger, which have 2 billion and 900 million users, respectively, will help them start making more money. To make these apps as profitable as Facebook and Instagram is the objective.
Currently, Meta permits simple transactions to be completed within the messaging app in various nations. A new payment option was made available via the messaging service last week in Brazil, one of the major markets.
The company said of the new service: “This seamless payment experience will be a game changer for people and businesses wishing to buy and sell on WhatsApp without having to go to a website, open another app, or pay in person.”
Since numerous businesses rely on this subscription model to provide further features, this is nothing new. One of them is Telegram Premium, a formidable rival of the platform. Twitter Blue, which will, among other things, provide the option to have the verified next to the username, is another example of this.