What’s up with WhatsApp for Mobile Operators?
Office 365: Maximize Your Business Productivity & Security
The most popular messaging app that people use is WhatsApp, with eight hundred million active monthly users worldwide. Acquired by Facebook in February two thousand fourteen for $Nineteen billion, WhatsApp has recently added free voice calling to its service. With this strategic stir, the company is going aggressively after competitors such as Skype and Apple’s FaceTime that are also providing OTT (Over-The-Top) applications.
Since Allot supports and identifies WhatsApp calling, let’s have a quick look at what we detected during the very first week after the WhatsApp voice launch (based on data from a Tier-1 mobile operator).
- Total WhatsApp traffic enhanced by 5% during the very first week (March twenty six – April Two, 2015)
- Total WhatsApp traffic during that week included:
- WhatsApp file transfers (photos, movies, links, documents) that took up most of the traffic with 76%
- WhatsApp Messaging that took up 19%
- WhatsApp Voice that took up 5%
- If we look at WhatsApp Messaging and WhatsApp Voice traffic only (excluding WhatsApp File Transfer), we see that WhatsApp voice accounted for 20% of traffic volume.
It looks like WhatsApp is attempting to break into the OTT voice market, a stir that made flaps especially in the Indian market with its seventy million monthly WhatsApp users. Indian users of the calling option were not pleased, since bandwidth constraints kept the practice from being slick. This is a common problem with “greedy” applications (Read our blogpost “When facing “greedy” applications – who do you call?” to learn more).
A few telecom operators had planned to charge separately for internet-based voice calls provided by the likes of Skype and WhatsApp and Viber, since zero rating would influence their revenue flows. Their worries are legitimate – OTT messaging subscribers have grown to more than one billion in less than five years globally. As a result, non-data revenues (SMS and other services) of telecom players have been declining.
The role of operators around the globe has switched dramatically – they are now service providers delivering the Digital Practice anytime, anywhere – for work and play. This means that they are now suggesting very personalized service plans including access to movie, music, cloud storage and social media apps of third-party content providers. SPs are in a unique position to supply the seamless practice that their users want by leveraging their own unique capabilities: (1) enabling access, (Two) shaping the user practice, and (Trio) tracking & analyzing application usage. This, combined with strategic partnerships with content providers, is a success formula for all parties involved.
This trend toward application-centric plans has already began. As stated in Allot’s MobileTrends Charging Report H1, 2014, there has been a measurable rise in creative ecosystem partnerships inbetween service providers and content providers. An estimated 85% of operators are leveraging OTT apps, since application-centric plans demonstrate higher Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) and lower churn.
WhatsApp might become an even thicker problem for operators in the near future once Facebook will add movie calling to it. As we have seen with Snapchat when it introduced its HD movie talk, the bandwidth usage of such an app soars. For operators, this could make WhatsApp one of the top ten applications ranked by bandwidth usage.
What – s up with WhatsApp for Mobile Operators, Allot Blog
What’s up with WhatsApp for Mobile Operators?
Office 365: Maximize Your Business Productivity & Security
The most popular messaging app that people use is WhatsApp, with eight hundred million active monthly users worldwide. Acquired by Facebook in February two thousand fourteen for $Nineteen billion, WhatsApp has recently added free voice calling to its service. With this strategic budge, the company is going aggressively after competitors such as Skype and Apple’s FaceTime that are also providing OTT (Over-The-Top) applications.
Since Allot supports and identifies WhatsApp calling, let’s have a quick look at what we detected during the very first week after the WhatsApp voice launch (based on data from a Tier-1 mobile operator).
- Total WhatsApp traffic enlargened by 5% during the very first week (March twenty six – April Two, 2015)
- Total WhatsApp traffic during that week included:
- WhatsApp file transfers (photos, movies, links, documents) that took up most of the traffic with 76%
- WhatsApp Messaging that took up 19%
- WhatsApp Voice that took up 5%
- If we look at WhatsApp Messaging and WhatsApp Voice traffic only (excluding WhatsApp File Transfer), we see that WhatsApp voice accounted for 20% of traffic volume.
It looks like WhatsApp is attempting to break into the OTT voice market, a budge that made swings especially in the Indian market with its seventy million monthly WhatsApp users. Indian users of the calling option were not pleased, since bandwidth constraints kept the practice from being sleek. This is a common problem with “greedy” applications (Read our blogpost “When facing “greedy” applications – who do you call?” to learn more).
A few telecom operators had planned to charge separately for internet-based voice calls provided by the likes of Skype and WhatsApp and Viber, since zero rating would influence their revenue rivulets. Their worries are legitimate – OTT messaging subscribers have grown to more than one billion in less than five years globally. As a result, non-data revenues (SMS and other services) of telecom players have been declining.
The role of operators around the globe has switched dramatically – they are now service providers delivering the Digital Practice anytime, anywhere – for work and play. This means that they are now suggesting very personalized service plans including access to movie, music, cloud storage and social media apps of third-party content providers. SPs are in a unique position to produce the seamless practice that their users want by leveraging their own unique capabilities: (1) enabling access, (Two) shaping the user practice, and (Three) tracking & analyzing application usage. This, combined with strategic partnerships with content providers, is a success formula for all parties involved.
This trend toward application-centric plans has already began. As stated in Allot’s MobileTrends Charging Report H1, 2014, there has been a measurable rise in creative ecosystem partnerships inbetween service providers and content providers. An estimated 85% of operators are leveraging OTT apps, since application-centric plans showcase higher Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) and lower churn.
WhatsApp might become an even thicker problem for operators in the near future once Facebook will add movie calling to it. As we have seen with Snapchat when it introduced its HD movie talk, the bandwidth usage of such an app soars. For operators, this could make WhatsApp one of the top ten applications ranked by bandwidth usage.