Popular cross-platform messaging service WhatsApp is planning to move to a subscription based model for iOS later this year ending its current model of one-time purchase fee for iOS users. Such a move will place the app in the same league as platforms such as BlackBerry, Android and Windows Phone where it's free to use the service for the first year.
The paradigm shift in the policy has been revealed by WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum during an interview with Dutch journalist Alexander Klopping. "The new subscription model would apply to new users, Koum said, and would likely follow the same pricing structure as its other apps, which are free for the first year and then cost $1/year, compared to the single, for-life $0.99 purchase that users make on iOS today," TechCrunch reports. "We're relaxed on dates, but definitely this year. It's on the road map," Koum said.
Existing users are likely to be moved into the new pricing plan when the change becomes effective sometime this year. "We want to keep things simple," Koum said without further explaining the logic behind WhatsApp moving to a subscription model.
Riding the global smartphone boom, WhatsApp is an enormously popular service that transmits over 17 billion messages daily with over 100 million users on Android alone.
Also, Koum says the company does not plan to make a desktop version of its service any time soon. "We feel strongly that the world is moving to mobile and [so] we want to be mobile-only. Your phone is with you all the time, and desktop is to many becoming a secondary experience. [So] our answer is no, not anytime soon," he said.
He said that live streaming video service would not come to WhatsApp this year. He refused to comment on the acquisition rumors as well. It was widely reported back in December that Facebook was keen to acquire the messaging service and was in negotiations to acquire it. This was later denied by WhatsApp. Another discredited umor is that WhatsApp is planning to integrate gaming onto its platform.
