If you haven’t read it already, go right now and read Whatsapps blog post about why they don’t sell ads.
If you dont know, Whatsapp is a mobile only messaging service that works on data enabled phones. You can think of it as SMS over data. Of course, the service also offers the whole shebang of data enabled transactions like sharing images, contacts, etc . Alongside it also has a rudimentary version of a user profile including an updateable status.

And that’s all folks.

Whatsapp is a focused app that promises to do only one thing, allow you to comfortably have conversations with whoever you like. Whatsapp doesn’t aspire to be a social network or feed based product . They just promise a simple, easy to use chat product and in return ask you to pay for it after using it freely for 7 months.

But why should you pay? Why pay when there are other services out there providing you the same functionality for absolutely free. Because Whatsapp makes a promise; the promise that it is exactly what it says it is, a simple messaging service and nothing else . They’re charging you for exactly what they should i.e. providing a messaging service. They don’t want your data to run better ads, run sentiment analysis or to spot what’s trending . They don’t give a shit. They don’t want to forcefully monetize and make you indirectly pay for the service, instead they’re upfront about what they will and will not do . You want a simple service, they’ll build it but since the servers aren’t free you’re going to have to pay for them; it’s a simple, no bullshit deal with no strings attached.

And this is exactly why i love it and it’ll probably be the first software i pay for.
A lot of services think about monetization as an after thought which is a terrible thing to do; if people are using your service for free, whats stops them from switching to a competitor (actually nothing stops them even if they’re paying but the likelihood to jump ship is lower for the former), it’s almost an indication of not so great inherent value. Business should be about exchanging one valuable good for another in a clear well understood manner, it shouldn’t be about suddenly waking one day to discover that you need to make money and then making efforts to monetize your users, monetization should come naturally where people know exactly what they’ve signed up for and are willing to pay for the value they derive from the service.
As the world embraces digital, it’s time for digital to embrace some things the offline world is good at, getting people to pay for the stuff they want.