It seems that there is another app aiming at the mobile messaging
sector. This new app is called line. It is developed by a Japanese company. The
app is getting so many downloads that it becomes the fastest growing app in the
recent month. The company is saying that at the current stage it does not plan
to monetize its fast growing user base, instead it is trying to focus on
getting even more users in the future. As I wrote in my previous blog, it seems
that the mobile messaging apps are getting a lot of attention from the users.
One recent article in New York Times reports that the revenues from text messaging
has been decreasing in recent month for tech companies, such as Verizon and
AT&T. While this article supports the fact the more people are switching
their text messaging to apps, the companies that development these apps still didn’t
figure out the revenue model for the its services. Even worse, the competition
between the apps is getting fierce. So far, the two other messaging apps, WeChat
and Line, are completely free and there are no ads, while Whatsapp is charging
user a yearly subscription of $1. The subscription model might make sense for
Whatsapp, but at $1 per year per user is not going to be enough to cover the
bandwidth required for storage all these data, such as photo or short video
clips. So, at this stage, the companies are hoping that more people will ditch
the text messaging and switch to apps, with enough people it will become easier
for companies to come up with revenue model.
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/11/13/line-asias-answer-to-whatsapp/
The carriers are already baking this revenue loss into higher data rates.
ReplyDeleteBlackberry was going to open up their popular BBM messaging tool - haven't heard much about that. They may have missed their window.
Many of these apps are looking to extend their value props - allowing attachments and video etc.
BBM just launched a voice utility. http://crackberry.com/how-use-bbm-voice