WhatsApp is one of the most popular mobile apps in the world. More than 2 billion people use it globally, and more than 400 million people use it in India. India is one of the biggest markets for WhatsApp, just like Facebook and Google.
In this article, we will try to understand why people use it so heavily. What attracts people towards this app despite presence of several other applications to perform similar functions.
According to my analysis, following are the major reasons behind popularity of whatsapp in India :-
1. Free service
India is a middle income country, and people here always love free things. Whatsapp does not charge any money for audio call, video call, and its instant messaging service. Due to this everyone gets attracted towards it.
Whatsapp beats all it rivals easily when it comes to cost. For example, all the telecom companies charge significant amount of money for normal audio calls and SMS. They have a system of monthly, quarterly or annual recharge plans. But, with Whatsapp, you don’t pay a single rupee.
Similarly, when it comes to chatting, social media networks like Facebook and Twitter provide free service but they show lot of ads. They also don’t provide privacy like Whatsapp. So naturally for private chats, it becomes a good option for many people.
2. High quality and all in one service
Telecom companies in India are sometimes criticized for poor or inconsistent quality of their network connection. But with Whatsapp, network problems are minimal, and people can talk more smoothly.
Whatsapp allows people to do instant messaging. It also allows people to share some files, images and video clips along with messages. Normal mobile companies allows you to send text messages, but for sending images and video clips you have to rely on social media or some other apps.
This makes Whatsapp an all in one service, providing audio call, video call, chat, file sharing everything in just one app. That too for free.
3. Some exciting features
Whatsapp provide some exciting features which allow people to express themselves in a better way. For example, 24 hour status update is a feature through which people share some photo, some thought, some small video clip etc. to share their emotions with their family and friends.
Similarly, tens of emojis it provide also attract people, and make the conversation more interesting. For example, whether you are happy or sad or excited or confused, you have at least 4-5 emojis to express yourself. In fact there are so many emojis that you can find something for every major life event ranging from birthday and marriage to illness and death ceremony.
That’s it.