[eoincathal]

I am more than happy to pay for a subscription to Whatsapp. I have a scattered family and it's a great way for us to stay in touch. As one of the more technically-minded family members, switching to a different service does not bother me but we've got 3 generations on our Whatsapp family groups and its ease of use and familiarity gives it inertia.

Not bothered by the idea of a relatively affluent westerner (me) paying more than those in less well off parts - already do for a lot of goods and services.

Facebook's data hoover and business model aside, are subscriptions, in themselves, unworkable for Whatsapp?

[xkjkls]

Pay what though? $1 a year? $10 a year? $100?

They have to find a way to justify the $19 billion purchase price. Almost all charging schemes are only going to get certain fraction of people to convert, and they need to be finding ways to reach similar $20 per user revenue numbers like the Facebook main app has in the US.