[twelvechairs]

Speculation - pure and simple. its an easy sell at the moment to executives and financial types who don't understand how computers work. The reality is that all these services (just like icq) are simple to replace and will only become moreso. if you try to make more than a trickle of income users will turn away. it won't pan out long term for many of these big purchases.

[im3w1l]

I wonder if IAP could work for social... "You used all your daily premium smileys. Click here to buy more!"

[lovemenot]

Check out the business model of Line, the WhatsApp competitor dominant in Japan. It's almost exactly what you said. http://www.oneskyapp.com/blog/secret-monetizing-messaging-ap...