WhatsApp, the popular Facebook-owned messaging service, is dropping its $1 fee that some users still must pay in order to use the mobile service.
According to a report from Reuters, the company is experimenting with making businesses pay to reach customers.
WhatsApp, which is the world’s most popular messaging service, offering text, picture and video messaging, has announced this week that they also have plans to offer complete encryption of messages to users, something that it already offers users on Android phones.
This new move could be something that draws considerable criticism from authorities that monitor services like WhatsApp to track criminal and terrorist activity. According to Reuters, governments in the U.S and Britain have threatened to pass laws that would prohibit extensive end-to-end encryption of mobile messages.
However, WhatsApp is going ahead with plans to be the world’s largest service with completely private messaging.
“We are a couple of months away from calling it done,” said Chief Executive Jan Koum. “Soon we will be able to talk more about this.”
WhatsApp is seven years old, and was acquired by Facebook for US$19.2 billion in 2014. It now can boast having nearly 1 billion users worldwide.
According to a report from Reuters, the company is experimenting with making businesses pay to reach customers.
This new move could be something that draws considerable criticism from authorities that monitor services like WhatsApp to track criminal and terrorist activity. According to Reuters, governments in the U.S and Britain have threatened to pass laws that would prohibit extensive end-to-end encryption of mobile messages.
However, WhatsApp is going ahead with plans to be the world’s largest service with completely private messaging.
“We are a couple of months away from calling it done,” said Chief Executive Jan Koum. “Soon we will be able to talk more about this.”
WhatsApp is seven years old, and was acquired by Facebook for US$19.2 billion in 2014. It now can boast having nearly 1 billion users worldwide.
