Facebook isn't planning to monetize Whatsapp just yet
Whatsapp has always had a pretty low-key business model: your first year on the service is free, and every year beyond that'll cost you a whopping $1. Now that the ink is dry on its $22ish billion buyout deal with Facebook, is the social juggernaut planning to change things up? Maybe, but according to a new report from Reuters, CEO/chief hacker Mark Zuckerberg isn't planning to try and make more money off the incredibly popular app in the short term. Makes sense: after all, Whatsapp currently has well over half a billion people using it each month, thanks in part to the company's no-nonsense way of making money. There are no obnoxious ads to be found, no sponsored deals -- just a simple, functional way to communicate that runs on nearly any device with a processor and a screen. An attempt to shoehorn in-app purchases or paid services into the mix might only serve to alienate some of Whatsapp's most devoted users... not to mention trigger weeks and weeks worth of meandering opinion pieces. Ugh.
