Didn't WhatsApp do it similar in the beginning? AFAIR they offered the app for free and said after one year you have to pay 1€/$. I paid this once or twice and then it was free again (probably because of FB).
However it was very clever to give a whole year for free, lock everyone in and then start taking a small fee. I like that strategy. Now with FB it's just a plain data grab.
Correct. And despite this, many of my friends refused to pay the $1/£1/1€ on the basis that facebook messenger was free, as was SMS in their cell plans.
So I paid for them. Despite them all earning real money in real jobs.
Then Facebook bought WhatsApp, and now none of them are willing to move to Signal, because they like WhatsApp.
However it was very clever to give a whole year for free, lock everyone in and then start taking a small fee. I like that strategy. Now with FB it's just a plain data grab.