• by Ben Frederick  @mp_benfred, January 18, 2016

WhatsApp said it was doing away with subscription fees for its over-the-top messenger service in a blog post this morning.

The approach to charging a fee after the first year of use was apparently not effective for the app, which has nearly a billion users around the world, many of whom don’t have a credit or debit card number.

Facebook acquired WhatsApp in early 2014 for $19 billion. At the time, it had 450 million subscribers, a number that has more than doubled since its acquisition by Facebook. Ironically, it appears that such a massive increase in international scale is the major reason behind the shift away from a subscription model.

Reportedly, many users in other countries worried that their service would be cut off if they were unable to pay the $1 subscription fee.

However, dropping the subscription fee doesn’t mean the app is introducing ads in order to pay for itself. Instead, the app is turning to B2C-style communication, connecting consumers to airlines or banks, among other industries, for information through texting.

This is similar -- if not identical -- to the tack that Facebook’s Messenger app has taken.

The company stated that it would test out new business models to see how it could still turn a profit. Jan Koum, WhatsApp’s cofounder, reportedly said at a conference that the company’s acquisition by Facebook has allowed them to think more about their product and less about money.