[gghootch]

As a long time user who profited from their first free download promotion, I have been wondering how the hell whatsapp can remain profitable for many years to come. Moving to .99 cents/year sounds great, but expect a massive user exodus.

Many users out there are stingy as hell. I have actually heard people argue that they don't want an iPhone because you have to pay for whatsapp...

Let's hope that their dominance of the market is enough to incentivize users to pay forever. Oh, and that they do not actually sell out to Facebook.

[qnk]

Dominance does not guarantee users' loyalty. Whatsapp is huge in Euope, but LINE[1], the Japanese alternative is now having an impressive growth in Spanish speaking countries. Las time I heard, they had 75 million users.

This demonstrates that this market is not still settled down and can still be disrupted.

The main reasons people is switching to LINE are stickers (huge emoticons that you get for free and with extra paid packages) and they have a desktop client, along with the possibility to run on iPods and iPads, probably Whatsapp's most requested feature.

[1] http://line.naver.jp/