> Nobody actually paid for WhatsApp. At least, nobody I know off.
People did pay. Its just that the charging was somewhat selective. Obviously you and your friends weren't in the group that was selected.
Originally, it was a paid app ($1) on the iPhone. Eventually, that was dropped in favor of using in-app billing to actually charge the $1/year on Android... but this was only enforced in a few selected countries at first. Once the Facebook acquisition happened, this effort was dropped. If it hadn't happened, then charging users would have expanded gradually over time.
People did pay. Its just that the charging was somewhat selective. Obviously you and your friends weren't in the group that was selected.
Originally, it was a paid app ($1) on the iPhone. Eventually, that was dropped in favor of using in-app billing to actually charge the $1/year on Android... but this was only enforced in a few selected countries at first. Once the Facebook acquisition happened, this effort was dropped. If it hadn't happened, then charging users would have expanded gradually over time.