Re:Germany bans Facebook from handling WhatsApp data over pr...
by culturestate on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @10:14PM
(#27125902)
> theoretically they could have planned to turn it into a subscription service (pretty unlikely, but who knows…)
WhatsApp originally was a subscription service; when I first signed up, it cost $1 per year.
They dropped the fee in 2016[1], and now Facebook is trying[2] to go back to the subscription model for business.
1. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/ne...
2. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/22/facebook-to-charge-for-whats...
¹ some information could be gleaned from public filings, but the more interesting question is the relationship between amount of data extracted and revenue gained; any public filings only show the status quo.