WhatsApp : A possible Game-changer !

A definite moment of High for the 32-member Engineer team of Whatsapp  was being acquired by Facebook for a whooping USD 19 Billion.

Whatsapp has been a significant development in the world of mobile applications and it changed the landscape for telecos globally and the way these telecommunication companies would do business in the future.
Whatsapp, A mobile messaging application originated in USA, was not a popular medium of communication for the people in States (and not many people had even heard of the name "Whatspp" till it was bought by Facebook for a record USD 19 Billion- a cost to which many experts doubts of Facebook's Decision to buy it, which is a separate post). USA is a technologically colorful nation and already has had a lot of options of communication like Facetime (as US has a record number of iOS users) , Kik, Snapchat and also has had a dense penetration of Facebook and Twitter.  So, when in the year 2009 Whatsapp came into existence it was not THE choice. However, it was an instant hit with European countries and had the highest penetration in Brazil and India which was simultaneously going through another revolution of a kind with smartphone sales breaking all previous records. And had high costs of communication via Telecom be it Voice or SMS.

It is important that we understand why Whatsapp became a rage (if I may use that word) in a lot of countries.

- An obvious reason for its success has been Whatspp being cross-platform and its ability to send messages to other users globally free of cost.

- When compared to other apps: A technical reason is  that Whatsapp has least number of shortcomings in comparison to other options available : Facebook Messenger means that the two people need to be connected as Friends on a social network site which in turn means disclosing a lot of personal information to a stranger to which we are not always comfortable and have our own apprehensions.
Viber, though a good option but never really became as famous and popular as Whatsapp because Viber's interface was not as smooth as Whatspp and also the size of the emoticons and stickers was bigger than whatsapp which meant the mobile data would be drained real quick. (This is an important factor in the success of a mobile messaging app specially in rising markets which are mobile data cost sensitive)

- Whatsapp communication means users do not have to share any personal information with the other person besides contact number and always have the flexibility to ignore or just get rid of the person.

- Facebook's Acquisition of Whatsapp helped to gain more visibility: After being acquired by Facebook it became famous amongst people who did not know of the messaging service specially in US.

-Europe is a land locked continent and Europeans are a breed of people who travel a lot and for longer periods, and cost of sending a message and voice call for international destinations is quite a lot. For example, the cost of a SMS in Germany is Euro 0.15 (which is a lot). So they needed a platform which was not just cross platform but used cross country as well, and this became a reason for people to look for messaging apps like Whatsapp and Viber.

- Another personal observation as a coder of mobile application has been that if you launch a social application and it has gained a certain number of users, then those users in turn get you 
more users.

How to cash-in on the addiction to Whatsapp ?

In my last article I pointed to a few ways in which you can monetize your time on Internet. Likewise,  the time on whatspp could be monetized as well.

I thought to write about this section of Monetization after a cousin of a friend of mine told of a way she is earning money from it.

- If you are good at people skills and are a social person who has a lot of contacts in your Mobile Phone, then creating a group and posting a few Images of the products along with its price earn you a few extra bucks regularly and you would not be really spending even a single penny in creating any kind of store and reaching to any prospects. It could also be a possible test ground to find out if the products you plan to sell would click with the people or not. And if it does you can always move to creating a store for you on the web.

- An age old method of finding prospective clients has been cold calling, some of the renowned and famous Marketing and Business Development People have done this at some stage of their career to have a collection base of a few people who they can always approach to sell a product or a service.
And with a lot of regulations in place in telecom like Do Not Disturb  (for which sometimes people sue you to have called them ) it becomes difficult to find prospective clients and also you can reach a limited people.
Likewise has been Bulk Email Marketing,  which is again a saturated way.

-Whatsapp does not have any regulation till date, by the telecom companies or internet regulators. And you can always reach international and domestic prospects with a nicely drafted proposal.
Though it runs a higher risk of being blocked but chances of finding some prospective clients also run high as your messages would reach the users for sure and almost most times it would be seen as read. So, its all about being creative enough to get their attention.

How would Whatsapp be of use to Facebook

Whatsapp managed half the number of users as FB (450 million users with Whatsapp) in a short of time of 5 years and was rising. Facebook ran the risk of loosing to a rising platform which could be an alternative to FB should people start looking for alternatives. So like Instagram, where people had started to gravitate to image sharing and with one add-on feature of chat it could dethrone FB, so could whatsapp with some smart and creative features. Facebook ended buying both for USD 1 Billion for Instagram and USD 19 Billion for Whatsapp.

The initial relevance of Whatsapp to Facebook was to not loose its users to a competitor. Later they made Whatsapp a free application.

A big question: How would Facebook Monetize this Application for which they have spend a magnum opus 19 Billion.

Based on a few reports and analysis: A corporate package of the application which would have some add on feature and a control button for the employer. 

Sponsored Messages: This could be something like a Sponsored ad on Instagram.

A Hidden Way: Data Analysis and usage patterns of the users of the application would be used to send them some targeted Links/Messages/ads or maybe selling the data to some product and service companies.

In Depth Integration with Facebook: Posts and articles and images can now be shared on whatspp like on Facbeook, Hangout, And other social application. There were images circulated on the internet to show a dedicated option of Whatspp share on every share on Facebook.

Killing Whatsapp: Facebook Messenger is being tweaked in a way to be another great messaging system which would be an alternative for people who want to opt for a better solution with some new creative features. And with the analysis and usage patter study of whatspp users it would only help in improvisation of Messenger.

This would also mean that Facebook might do to Whatsapp what it did to "Parse Solution" which is to buy it and after a while just close it down.

Readers Take Home

Anyone with an idea and hard-work stands a chance to become a rival to biggies like Facebook in a very small time. So do not stop dreaming big and continue to work on your dream ideas.

Technology presents everyone with an equal opportunity to become big by changing lives of the masses. 

Who knows one day you might end up shadowing Facebook or Google or maybe become another Apple of the world or least of all frighten them and earn some few hundred Billion dollars and work on another dream. 

Continue Dreaming

And Thanks for reading :)

Is it Safe to use my credit card on any website !?

This is always a question that users have when they want to buy a product on an e-commerce website, the doubt is for a simple reason of loosing money due to Multiple Credit-Card Frauds.


What should an end user do ?

As an end user of the website you can be careful of a few things which will make your online transactions safe.

When you are redirected to the Payment page, make sure that the payment page is an interface of the Payment gateway or in other words you are redirected to a secure payment gateway to make payment (be it of Visa or Master-card or Paypal or of any other credit card).  These payment gateways are PCI compliant and never pass on your credit card information to these website databases besides storing your card information in encrypted form.

So, it would minimize the risk of database being hacked and the information of your credit card stolen, or website owners cheating their end customers.

Also, you can avail the 3D verification or OTP option offered by your credit card companies to authorize any payment done online via your credit card.

What you need to be careful of ?

The  websites which make you enter your card information on their own website and store it in their own database, making you susceptible to online credit-card scam.

Let us know if you have any questions for us.


Cheers !
Technologies33 Team

How to earn money via Internet !?

Everyone wants to earn money. We have access to internet and somehow want to monetize the time we spend on internet, besides wasting a huge amount of time on Facebook and WhatsApp.

Though it is important and a part of global culture to have a Social Network Profile these days. However, most of us do not really monetize or earn anything out of it for the time that we spend on these platforms.

Technologies33 thought to list a few ways in which Internet in general could be a boon for you.

Street smart way to earn:

Lets start with a street smart way to earn some quick money. Everyday we have a hot discussion in the global arena. There is some piece of news which is trending regionally and globally.
The best we can do is to buy a domain which reflects information about that piece of news. And create a small website with all copy paste content from other websites with content on the same news. (I know its not morally correct, which is why I called it a street smart way)
This would mean a huge possibility that your website would get listed on Page 1 or Page 2 on Google Search for that piece of searched news.
But how did you earn money from it ?
Well, you need to have placed Google Ads on this website and place it strategically on the page so that it gets clicked often and you earn money from it.

An example of it is Horoscope website.

Check a few websites and you would realize that text on all of them is mostly the same. In fact an exact same content on various websites is also seen at times.

Also,  such websites would always have ads on them which help them earn money from it.

Monetize Instagram Account:

How to earn money from Instagram: A possible way to earn money from Instagram is to be a regular user of the application with some regular likes and a good number of followers.
If you maintain a theme based account (not really a personal account) with posts about just your city or technology or gadgets or latest fashion trends or cools apps pics, then there is a high possibility that some small company or some new users of Instagram would contact you for a shoutout and you can always charge for it.
That is what is rumored, some international models charge millions of dollars for some accessory or fashion brand like Gigi Hadid or Kim Kardashian.


Facebook Helps too:

How to earn money from Facebook: Well, there is no direct monetization from Facebook (at least we are not aware of one and not really big fans of Facebook) however, Facebook is a great medium to promote your service or Business.
It becomes necessary to have a Facebook Profile because people would search for your product or service or Business on google and due to high page rank of Facebook, your business profile page on Facebook would get listed on the first page, else you might miss visibility.


Get your own Mobile Applications Done:

Try to get services of some mobile application developers to get some small applications coded in your name, it could be some small games, or trivia applications or knowledge/textual application or any small application. And if it clicks you have a huge chance of making some big money.
You can always take the example of "Yo" Application. When it was launched it would just be able to send a Yo to the contacts in the phone book. It became a viral application and got millions of Dollar in venture funding.
You can also get Ad networks integrated on the application which pay the app owners for ever click of the ad on the application.
Also, in-app purchases can be integrated on the application for which Apple charges you 30% of all sales done on Application, so does Google.

Hope you liked a few ways we have described. More possible ways would be described later.


Cheers !
Technologies33 Team

How to choose the best UI Design Company/Partner !?

An important step to realizing a good and a successful product is the User Interface or popularly known as UI of the Product/System.

Sometimes the most feature rich systems are not as successful as their user-friendly counterparts which is the reason platform like "Whatspp" has been more successful than "We Chat"- a platform that existed before whatsapp was coded and ended copying whatsapp User Interface.

With a constant increase in the number of internet users on mobile (which is expected to be 63.4 % globally by the year 2017), it is very important to have a design or User Interface which is user friendly for a Mobile User and looks perfect on a iPad or a Macbook or a Desktop too.

The need of a user interface which looks perfect on all device sizes throws another important question at every site/product owner - How should you choose the best designer to trust with the User Interface ?
Should you spend a fortune approaching a big company to trust their design sense or can you trust a startup company with a handful people ?
What is the best design for your product ?
How much should you spend on Graphic design or an improvised User Interface ?

While the need for an impressive User Interface is really important however, it is not as difficult to choose the right User Interface person to work on improvising the current system or designing a new one, should you consider a few parameters.

- Graphical Design is really subjective, and the same graphic might look good to one and might look horrendous to another user.
However a few things can always be taken care of: The current design trend is of big and bright flat colors, big fonts, grid layout, The design should look perfect on various size of devices from a mobile phone to a large screen of a desktop. Hence, the design should be in correspondence to the latest design trends of Web 2.0

Also, there are a few guidelines that can help you choose the right color
URL: https://goo.gl/3YaDe7
URL: https://goo.gl/NfyP1X

- Progressive involvement of the client with the designer during all stages of design is really important, as sometimes the designers do tend to misunderstand or overlook a minor but an important detail of the product/system being designed.

Never wait for the final product to be ready to test instead be progressively involved during every stage of theme finalization and try and test every created module or design.

Make sure that you have seen the previous work of the designer who is assigned the work of working new designs for your product.

- A mistake that a lot of people tend to make is when they form an opinion in their head, if designs are coming from a big company who are using a lot of fancy tools and terminology to describe a simple work then it must be good, which is not correct as even big companies go wrong with their final design.

- A very important thing to understand as the owner of the system being developed/improvised is that the User Interface person should ask you enough questions to understand the product.
The design should not just be graphically appealing, it should also create the kind of brand that you want to be created amongst your current and potential users.

- As a client and the owner of the system if you take continued interest in the design or conceptualization of the system you can always end up with quality work working with small companies while spending a whole less amount than you would hiring a big name to get your work designed.

- Another psychological point that can be of help is smaller companies are always looking to make a good portfolio and give all the care and attention to the work at hand.

Hope you liked our perception, do let us know if you want any help from us.

Wish all the readers a Happy New Year!! :)