Are Instant Messaging apps being benefited with free talk-time offers?

It’s been raining free talk-time for past couple of months on various instant messaging apps. This is a new way to accelerate the subscriber base with the competition getting tough with every passing year. The space is crowded with numerous such apps that mainly provide you with features like instant messaging, sending stickers, audio files, pictures, location, songs and a lot more.

    

Line has been quite a hit since it started off with its free recharge offers and also other instant messaging apps like Hike and WeChat. They come up with offers of free talk-time on sending messages through these apps or by inviting friends to these platforms.

By now we all are aware of how Indian users are fond of free recharges and offers and that’s the key reason why such tactics work so well here. These instant messaging apps have made it a trend to bring up such introductory offers which is also practised to raise their subscribership. And we are pretty sure that the results are nothing less than exceptional as we see the offers coming in time and time again.

But do these offers really help the instant messaging apps to sustain the users’ interest in the longer run? Well, this is a question that is yet to be answered but so far we have observed that users might be intrigued to some of these instant messaging apps owing to the offers they bring in but the charm is faded out the very moment it is over. What keeps the user intact is a good and easy to use interface and if the app has it then Voila! Users stick around forever.

Currently, WhatsApp is enjoying the top space and that is solely because of its UI (user interface) and the features. As long as I can remember, WhatsApp never initiated such a promotion offer and still it out rules the segment. All these tips and tricks might give a kick start to these platforms but to retain the interests of its users, they need to come up with better performing and feature-rich app.

Now let’s talk a bit about the target segment of such offers. Messaging apps like Line, Hike, WeChat, etc basically target the youth as they are the first ones to enjoy such free recharges and also spread the word like wildfire. For example, Line which is currently running its third free talk-time campaign witnessed a wise growth in its overall subscribers. So we can say that these offers do work, but for how long is the question that we seek an answer for.

To conclude, we’d like to say that the people behind these messaging apps surely know how to grab our attention which takes them to the next level. But to reach the other level, they now need to work upon flaming that spark. Till then, enjoy the free talk-time and other offers!