According to some rumors, big news may soon arrive regarding the use of WhatsApp. The most widely used application in the world for instant messaging from smartphones (Android, iOS and other mobile platforms), purchased by the owner of Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg), could be updated with a version containing advertising.
If those rumors are correct, Zuckerberg intends to introduce targeted advertising to abolish the 0.89 euro cents (0.99 if you pay in dollars) that users have to pay once a year to use the chat. The application then would go back to being totally free, but the banners would be the price to pay. A target-advertising, as we said. If this decision is confirmed, Zuckerberg will sell data at a high price to companies who, in this way, may provide their services and targeted products (exactly as with Facebook Ads).
For the moment, as we said before, there are no official communication about this decision, and probably during the next few weeks we will know more details. If these rumors are confirmed, this decision arrives just after a statement released by David Wehner (the CFO of Facebook), who declared that a particular feature, Message for Business, which you can already find on Facebook, is going to be added also to WhatsApp.
But for now, users who decide to register to WhatsApp for the first time, still have their one year free trial period. At the end of this first year, you have to pay a very small fee to renew the license for one more year. Small indeed: 0.99 dollars or 0.89 Euros. It is not a big amount, especially if you compare it to the cost of SMS, but maybe someone may welcome the possibility to use the app completely for free. How can you pay your licence now? You can extend your licence in two ways: using PayPal or Google Wallet.
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