WhatsApp drops US$1 fee; mulls over making businesses pay

Munich

THE world's most popular messaging service, WhatsApp, is dropping its token US$1 fee still levied on some users as it experiments with making businesses pay to reach their customers, chief executive Jan Koum said on Monday.

In addition, the Facebook-owned communications service expects in the coming months to offer complete encryption of messages, in a move to ensure the privacy of user conversations that is likely to draw further criticism from some governments.