Because when Whatsapp was born, SMS were paid (and not cheaply). In my country, sending one SMS cost 0.19€ at the time and didn’t allow pics to be send. Meanwhile, with 10€ I could have 1-2GB of data that allowed for tens of thousands of messages to be sent while on mobile data and unlimited messages while I was on a wifi connection.
Its funny that thats the current situation of international phone costs. Sms and calling internationally is expensive while I can download a global(/local to the country) esim giving me data for cheap.
And not only. I can make a voice or video call to my family abroad with any IM app (whatsapp, telegram, signal, discord… pick your poison) for free because I have tons of gb of data in my cell plan. Meanwhile, making a phone call will cost me dearly.
Because when Whatsapp was born, SMS were paid (and not cheaply). In my country, sending one SMS cost 0.19€ at the time and didn’t allow pics to be send. Meanwhile, with 10€ I could have 1-2GB of data that allowed for tens of thousands of messages to be sent while on mobile data and unlimited messages while I was on a wifi connection.
Its funny that thats the current situation of international phone costs. Sms and calling internationally is expensive while I can download a global(/local to the country) esim giving me data for cheap.
And not only. I can make a voice or video call to my family abroad with any IM app (whatsapp, telegram, signal, discord… pick your poison) for free because I have tons of gb of data in my cell plan. Meanwhile, making a phone call will cost me dearly.