3 Challenges That Publishers Face On WhatsApp

Read original story on: DIgiday

Digital publishers such as The Huffington Post and Daily Mirror have started experimenting with popular messaging app WhatsApp to push breaking news alerts to readers. But challenges abound for brands trying to connect with WhatsApp users, namely:

  1. A lengthy sign-up process
  2. A broadcast system limited to 256 members only per list
  3. The lack of dependable measurements, especially its “dark social” referrals.

These issues are partly due to the fact that WhatsApp was designed for small-scale commutation, not large-scale broadcasting. Nevertheless, for the publishers that put in the work to overcome those challenges, the platform is worth the effort. Huffington Post, for instance, reported click-through rates via its WhatsApp alerts to be as high as 60%.