Aside from sticker packs, Korean app Between offers premium features which allows couples to send each other video messages, back up photos in high resolution, and use animated emoticons. Additionally Between also partners with companies in Asia to offer discounts and coupons for couples to buy things for each other such as photo books, flowers, and coffee. It also advertises travel packages and other lifestyle products and items from partner companies for couples to help them make the best of their times together.
Up to this point, WhatsApp looks to be the only major messaging app that charges a subscription fee for access although it won’t really begin to do so until next year. The yearly US$0.99 fee is small enough that there’s bound to be enough people among its 300 million users who are more likely to pony up the dollar to keep using WhatsApp rather than dumping it and switching to other services.
Stickers not the only way
There are dozens more messaging apps with other monetization methods, but these are just a handful of popular examples of how messaging apps can monetize their services if they wish to avoid charging their users for access. With companies earning significant revenues out of in-app and game-related purchases, selling sticker packs is certainly not the only method even if it seems that way.
For apps with much smaller footprint or user base, offering sticker packs may be the easiest way to monetize early before other business opportunities reveal themselves but it’s also perhaps the laziest path to revenue because it’s too easy. Line’s financial report shows that its sticker business deliver “only” a quarter of its entire revenue, about half that of its in-game purchases.
If sticker packs are becoming a staple of messaging apps, then so be it, but as the examples above have shown, there are other ways for messaging apps to monetize. In the long run, if stickers prove to be a fad, apps that rely heavily on them could collapse.
もし、スタンプパックがメッセージアプリの看板商品になりつつあるなら、それはそれで仕方ない。ただし、前述のように、メッセージアプリの収益化には他の方法もある。もしスタンプ熱が一時的なものだと判明したら、それに依存するところが大きいアプリは、結局は消えていくだろう。
もしステッカーパックがメッセージアプリに欠かせないものになっているというのなら、そのようにすればよい。しかし上の例で示したように、メッセージアプリが収益を上げる方法は他にもある。長期的に見てステッカーが一時的な流行であることが分かれば、それにひどく依存しているアプリは崩壊してしまうだろう。
