A few years ago, WhatsApp wanted to charge an annual subscription fee of $1 but later gave up on the plan. Why?
Had they charged $1 a year, many would have stopped using the app.
But let us do the following exercise:
1. Estimate the time we daily spend on WhatsApp.
2. Estimate the portion of this time that was spent on random, useless things (say 30-50%).
3. To the time wasted (above), add the ‘switching time’ we lose when we leave our work to check WhatsApp, and come back.
This time, which we practically ‘throw away’, will add up to an hour or more for many of us. For some, it may be even 3-5 hrs.
What is the value of one hr of your time? Much more than $1, isn’t it?
Look at the irony — we are unwilling to give $1 a YEAR in cash, yet we DAILY give a lot more in ‘time’.
Strange, no?
– Rajan