Facebook and WhatsApp not only have the same master but are also two pillars of the same strategy of Mark Zuckerberg
The link between Facebook and WhatsApp is very strong: the first is the most populated and powerful social network in the world, while the second is the instant messaging app most used by owners of mobile devices, thanks also to the possibility of being connected via web using their own computer for textual, voice exchanges of images or files.
Although they are both at the top of their respective categories, the social network led by Mark Zuckerberg and the application that, little by little, is also becoming for many a valid communication tool at work, are profoundly different. If Facebook manages to bring home billions upon billions of dollars every year, through the implementation of advertising communications designed on the basis of the data and information of its users, WhatsApp still remains deeply tied to a different business model, a style devoid of promotional messages, basically due to its nature that to safeguard and protect the privacy of its 2 billion users does not allow the inclusion of this method of secure gain. And yet, the two communication bigwigs, are extremely connected.
Facebook and WhatsApp: the history of the merger
Founded by Brian Acton and Jan Koum in 2009, WhatsApp was among the first smartphone apps completely dedicated to instant messaging. First paid, at the price of one euro per lifetime or per year, it became free in January 2016, two years after its acquisition by Facebook for the discreet sum of $16 billion.
With the passage under the protective wing of Facebook, WhatsApp ended up the object of contention of its founding fathers on one side and Zuckerberg on the other. If for the latter the primary interest was to insert monetizable advertising messages within the platform, for the duo Acton and Koum such a move, i.e. the insertion of targeted advertising, could only mean a lowering of the security levels of the cryptographic systems that protect the exchanges between users. As confirmed by Bloomberg’s industry experts, once the possibility of earning money through targeted advertising was ruled out, the idea fell into oblivion, putting an end to the issue, at least so far.
Facebook and WhatsApp, two different business models
After saying goodbye to the possibility of inserting advertising into the platform, Zuckerberg focused on the use of the app for communication and the direct sale of goods by companies to users/consumers. This led to the introduction of WhatsApp Business, an app dedicated to merchants through which they can create sales catalogs and place orders from customers. Although it has not yet been launched in Italy, this year the app has reached the figure of 50 million companies involved in the operation.
Facebook, therefore, would only need one last step to see the path completed: namely payments through WhatsApp. Although this year it experimented with such a procedure in Brazil, the operation did not go through since only after a few weeks the government veto arrived due to a possible threat to competition and, consequently, an attack on the balance of the national economic system. It was a further blow for the social network, after the stop to the digital currency Libra that seems to fail to come to light, after the main partners have begun to parade from the initiative one after another.
It seems that we must wait a little longer before we can see a real merger between these two realities, not only from the business point of view but also functional. For now, then, all that remains is to continue to follow the steps of the social network and messaging system to understand where the new combined business model is pointing.