[natbobc]

They had something like 50 employees didn't they? Back of napkin I'd say probably around $10,000,000 for employee packages. Multiple that by 3-5x for total operating costs and I'd speculate they'd need $30-50m to break even which is about 3% of their subscribers paying $1.

[xkjkls]

The problem is that in order to maintain their position as an app everyone can communicate on, they need everyone paying the subscription fee. Once people realize not everyone is on the app, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

There’s a huge difference in the number of people willing to pay for an app “that I can connect to everyone with” and those willing to pay for an app “that I can connect to only the other people willing to pay $1 for”.

[natbobc]

I mentioned in another comment but many countries have free data for WhatsApp plans which kind of entrenches their position. They might lose out eventually but it won't be overnight.