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They charge $1/year with the first year free. Last year they had ~250M users and today they have 450M. So, about 50% (or 40% or 20%) of their user base is payin
by umeshunni 13y ago
They charge $1/year with the first year free. Last year they had ~250M users and today they have 450M. So, about 50% (or 40% or 20%) of their user base is paying $1/year. So, their annual revenue is $90M - $225M depending on the assumption. Even with a $1M/employee burn rate, their op ex is <$50M. Hence, they were profitable.
Another data point on their finances - The only external funding they've taken is $8M from Sequoia in 2011. It's unlikely that that could last them till now with 32 employees.
- quaunaut 13y agoProfitable sure, but I'm curious what their plans for expansion on that profit is. At best right now, they can hope for $450m next year. Even if they got all of that, it'd take more than 30 years to make Facebook their money back. So there's something they're wanting to do, a means of making money, that we don't know yet. I'm genuinely curious what they're thinking about.
- eru 13y agoThey could just over more `premium' services for more than 1$ per year.
- sschueller 13y agoI have been using whats app for way more than a year and never had to pay the $1. They would tell you how long you have left but when it was up it would just go on for another year.