Messaging services WhatsApp is to become an annual subscription-based service for Apple's iOS users sometime this year. Presently, iOS users need only pay a one-off payment of USS0.99 (RM3).
However, under the new proposed model WhatsApp users will get the service free for the first year and then they will be charged US$1 (RM3) annually.
The new proposed WhatsApp payment model for iOS users will fall in line with how the app is presently distributed on the Android, BlackBerry, Nokia and Windows Phone platforms.
It is uncertain, however, when this move will take place, only that it would take place sometime this year.
“We’re relaxed on dates, but definitely this year. It’s on the roadmap,” WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said in an interview with Dutch journalist Alexander Klopping.
His comments were reproduced in two Dutch blogs Tweakers and Techtastic.
Klopping later provided Tech Crunch with recording of the interview, in English.
In the interview, Koum said the new subscription model would only apply to new users. Users who had already paid the off-payment will not be subjected to the annual fees.
Via TechCrunch
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