Ways of Generating Revenue with Free Messaging Applications

At present, more than 5.1 billion people are using mobile phones worldwide. And the number of people using mobile internet is 4.03 billion (Source: Datareportal). Around 2.18 billion people are using messaging apps currently. And this number is projected to reach 2.48 billion by 2021 (Source: Statista). Statistic tells us that for real-time communication people are more than ever dependent on messaging apps. Either text or voice, these applications are successfully covering our needs in this domain. Popular messaging apps are expanding and accumulating more people into their platforms.

Besides general people, business organizations are also relying on popular IM apps for communication. 66% of consumers prefer messaging over any other media to be reached by brands. And 85% of consumers want their text message communication with brands to be two-way conversations (Source: Apifonica). Right now, popular brands and small businesses both prefer to communicate with their clients and customers through messaging apps. All these applications provide their core services of communication for free. That raises the question of how IM applications are making revenues. And because of the potential market growth, this sector is a top choice for entrepreneurs to involve. Whether you are thinking to launch a business in this sector or you already own a messaging application, you should put your focus on finding the ways of generating revenue with IM apps.

These are some of the ways that you can take into consideration to generate revenue with your free messenger app.

Subscription Fee for Premium Version

This is one of the old book ideas for generating revenue. This works by developing two versions of your messaging app. One will be completely free, and another will be giving some extra features in exchange of subscription fee. With the free version, by giving excellent core services you can create a positive impact upon your users. If you can cling your users to the free version of your app and they possess a positive remark about your service, then they will be willing to the pay the extra inch for getting a better experience.

In App Advertising

Smartphone users are roughly spending 89% of their browsing time using mobile apps (source: Tapjoy). Now, the mobile screen has become the most effective channel for marketers to attract new customers. Users perform login/sign-up actions in your messaging app using personal data e.g. email address, phone number, Facebook account, location. These personal data are automatically saved into the server. Using data analytics, you can easily identify the user’s behaviour and interest. Depending on their preference, you can display ads to them while they are using your messaging application. As you are displaying ads in relevance to their likes and dislikes it increase the chance of making revenue. You can also offer businesses access to your big audience. You can also close deals with big brands by offering thematic stickers of their products in your messaging application.

In App Purchasing

In-app purchasing rate is increasing among smartphone users. Customer app spending has grown from 40B in 2015 to 86B in 2017 (Source: Techjury). You can incorporate free to play video games in your messaging application. And offer the option of purchasing virtual items, game attributes and other services in the game to your users. By launching an addictive video game in your messenger you can create a revenue stream for your application.
Another way of increasing in-app purchasing is by launching various stickers in your messaging application. People want to make their communication vivid and engaging and this need of the users opens up an opportunity to increase revenue. Stickers of real life, movie or cartoon characters those are in trend recently will easily tempt users to buy stickers. In-app purchasing is one of the most popular and effective strategies among the largest mobile apps. Near 50% of the largest mobile applications use in-app purchasing as a monetizing strategy (Source: Sweetpricing).

Offer Additional Services

To increase customer stickiness, you can offer various additional services to your messaging platform. You can offer various third-party services in your messaging platform like shopping, ordering food, booking tickets, hailing taxies, book appointment for public services and many more. This lets you establish a business relationship with the third party service providers. You can take a percentage of the income these third parties are making through your platform. Also, this increases your users’ satisfaction and trust in your platform.
Offering payment option in your platform will also increase your revenue generation. This will make the transactions easier for all the third party services integrated into your platform. Besides this will give your users the leverage of sharing credit with friends and family. WeChat is the most successful example of generating revenue using this model.

Corporate Account 

By giving businesses an opportunity to make effective communication with their clients, you can maximize your profit. You will provide authorized accounts for businesses with some additional services. Businesses can call or send message to their clients through your app which will be less expensive than promotional SMS. Also, your application will provide them with a more engaging way of communicating with their customers. You can also offer some paid services to business accounts like sending promotional messages to the customer base of your platform.

Cheap Call-Out Service

You can generate revenue by providing your users with Call-Out service. Call-Out service enables your users to make local and international calls with people not having your application at cheaper rates. Cheaper rates give you an advantage over GSM operators and thus attracting more people to use your service.

All these revenue generating strategies will work thrivingly if they are applied upon a globally standard messaging application. If you are having thoughts of entering into this business sector, you need to develop a globally competent messaging application first.  

You can build your application without having the hassle of forming a separate team for software development. There are companies which offer ready solutions for you to enter into the market like DuComm White Label OTT Solution. DuComm’s expertise and experience would make it a lot easier for your company to build a messaging platform with your company logo and customized features. The use of state-of-the-art technologies and smart features has enabled DuComm to provide such a solution that ensures business growth and customer satisfaction. The bright side is you don’t even have to bother about the technical maintenance and upgradation about your application. While DuComm is taking care of all the technical aspects you get the freedom to focus on finding the perfect mixture of various revenue streams.