Big change coming for WhatsApp Business in South Africa where every reply will cost 12 cents

Newsfeed said:
Big change coming for WhatsApp Business in South Africa where every reply will cost 12 cents

From 1 October 2026, companies in South Africa replying to a customer on the WhatsApp Business Platform will be charged approximately 12 cents ($0.0076) per message.
Click to expand...
So the monetisation of whatsapp starts, I wonder when ads will be coming. That's not an insignificant amount when you are sending tens of thousands of messages a day.

I wonder what revenues WhatsApp is expecting to get globally, it's not going to be a small amount?

It’s sad, they lead us like lambs to the slaughter, they make sure theres total market domination, that Whatsapp is the defacto messaging platform then they swoop in for the kill :(
 
Wait it’s worse :

From 1 October 2026, replying to a customer on the WhatsApp Business Platform will cost approximately R0.12 ($0.0076) per message.
This is just the utility rate, according to WhatsApp owner Meta. The marketing rate is significantly higher at R0.62 cents ($0.0379) per message.
The change means that if a South African firm sends 10,000 marketing messages through WhatsApp Business, it will pay R6,200 for it."
 
Hopefully this price change means companies reconsider their ridiculous whatsapp chatbots because those useless things with their reams of inane pointless replies are going to be costing them now.
 
airborne said:
So the monetisation of whatsapp starts, I wonder when ads will be coming. That's not an insignificant amount when you are sending tens of thousands of messages a day.

I wonder what revenues WhatsApp is expecting to get globally, it's not going to be a small amount?

It’s sad, they lead us like lambs to the slaughter, they make sure theres total market domination, that Whatsapp is the defacto messaging platform then they swoop in for the kill :(
Click to expand...
In the near future , most popular app will be migrating to (some already there) OTP verification/ MFA through WhatsApp. The money for META is big but its still cheaper for most business using SMS OTPs.
 
airborne said:
Wait it’s worse :

From 1 October 2026, replying to a customer on the WhatsApp Business Platform will cost approximately R0.12 ($0.0076) per message.
This is just the utility rate, according to WhatsApp owner Meta. The marketing rate is significantly higher at R0.62 cents ($0.0379) per message.
The change means that if a South African firm sends 10,000 marketing messages through WhatsApp Business, it will pay R6,200 for it."
Click to expand...
That will make SMS/MMS cheaper, - especially if bought in bulk.
Seems stupid.
 
Yikes. I can imagine this will be the death of the Whatsapp self service portals too that a lot of these companies have, since every reply is now going to cost money.
 
hellfire said:
Firstly, SMS/MMS get largely ignored.
Secondly, I'm sure there will be bulk discounts
Click to expand...
I hope so because at those rates businesses will be thinking twice about using Whatsapp.
I still get lots of Sms from legit businesses,
 
airborne said:
So the monetisation of whatsapp starts, I wonder when ads will be coming. That's not an insignificant amount when you are sending tens of thousands of messages a day.

I wonder what revenues WhatsApp is expecting to get globally, it's not going to be a small amount?

It’s sad, they lead us like lambs to the slaughter, they make sure theres total market domination, that Whatsapp is the defacto messaging platform then they swoop in for the kill :(
Click to expand...
Ads started already. In the status I started getting it today
 
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