WhatsApprecently announced they were going to charge (some of) their users0,99$ for their services. The users' reactions were really harsh:
many of them immediatley started looking for alternative mobile phone
messengers like LINE or KakaoTalk, critized WhatsApp on Facebook and
felt “screwed” by the company (I'm not kidding; one of my
contacts said that on Facebook).
Eventually it's not really clear what
WhatsApp is going to do. It seems that that some users won't have to
pay, others already had to pay and some just stopped using WhatsApp.
But why would somebody consider 1$ to be a disproportionate fee for a
service that you can use everyday (24/7) and that is really usueful?
I can think of two contradictory explanations (maybe you can think of
more):
First reason: People try to maximize
their utility
If you study basic Microeconomicsyou'll learn that people always try to maximize their utility and
that they're completely rational – we're all “homines economici”.
Well, in this case users can save 0,99$ a year by switching to any
other messenger. The users' utility would increase by 0,99$... but
there's always a “but”... They also have to tell their friends
that they stopped using WhatsApp. They could inform them by
publishing a post on Facebook or by sending an e-mail, which can be
time-consuming. Furthermore, it's probable that some of their friends
won't see nor read these messages. So they'll have to call them and
tell them that they started using a new messenger, which costs money.
In the end these people might save a couple of cents by switching to
Line or KakaoTalk. Do you really think those guys are completely
rational? Well, they're as rational as those people who pay 500$ for
a handbag which was made in China and cost 15$... which leads me to the second possible argument...
Second reason: There is no “homo
economicus”
People are not rational. Actually the
intelligence quotient of 50% of the global population is below
average (if you assume that intelligence is normally distributed) –
maybe “irrational” is not the most appropiate word to describe
them...
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