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WhatsApp will no longer charge subscription fees

blog.whatsapp.com

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Re: WhatsApp will no longer charge subscription fees

#71

Post by oliwarner »

staunch wrote: post #61
defenestration wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From their description in the iTunes store: 'Pay Nothing - Signal is supported by a team of dedicated developers, community donations, and grants. There are no advertisements, and it doesn't cost anything to use.'

So it's a project, not a business.

You say that as if is has less value for not being a business.

When ideals are involved (strong encryption, privacy, ad-free), being run as a lean, open-source project is worth much more than being owned by a megacorp like Facebook.

Re: WhatsApp will no longer charge subscription fees

#72

Post by Chris2048 »

lmz wrote: post #66
Sir_Substance wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's how you see it, I'm very curious to know how you would define the linux kernel.

I was not aware that the Linux kernel required a server infrastructure to be running to work on my device.

Nitpick. It still requires development.

Re: WhatsApp will no longer charge subscription fees

#75

Post by ENTP »

mcpherrinm wrote: post #3
ENTP wrote: post #2

I, for one, shudder at the thought of Facebook getting my banking messages. Telegram has been a great alternative although it's not perfect.

I'd be much more nervous about Telegram getting that data.

I wasn't advocating Telegram as an alternative transport for financial data. More that I'd rather use telegram for im than anything facebook owns.

Re: WhatsApp will no longer charge subscription fees

#76

Post by janpieterz »

tptacek wrote: post #67
janpieterz wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're absolutely right if my goal was to get people to post these papers, which reading back can easily be how it is interpreted. My point was more that, as a 'consumer' of this product without any background knowledge, their contests seem extremely convincing to the point of being slightly ridiculous. A 300,000 dollar bounty, while participants get quite some more access than they would normally get while attacking…

This is one of the rare instances where me and Bruce Schneier agree unequivocally, so maybe you can just take Schneier's word for it --- remembering, when you do, that this happens so often in security that Schneier was moved to write a little article about it! https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram/archives/1998/1215.html...

Thanks a lot, that was very insightful and exactly the kind of insight I was looking for.

I think for me as an outsider it's really easy to fall for that trap, where certainly point 3 in his article was a realization that I would look at it the same way, perhaps spend a bit of time in my evenings on it but never spend, say, 3 months of research on the off chance that they might pay and that I might be the first winner/best winner, compared to a good (hourly) pay.

Re: WhatsApp will no longer charge subscription fees

#77

Post by Arnt »

51Cards wrote: post #37
defenestration wrote: post #15

Paid business services for customer interaction, sound like a plausible business model for WhatsApp. However, I get the feeling this is only part of the story. I assume that data mined by WhatsApp are probably more valuable to Facebook.

I would agree. I think their user base has hit some tipping point which ensures other revenue streams. That's the only reason I can think they would throw the fees... out the window. (nice user name)

Whatspp charges $1/year, right?

The announcement said handling payment was a big problem. Well, a support call costs $20 or so. If 5% of customers have a payment problem (don't have credit card any more etc) and 50% of those incidents require human attention, that's half of Whatsapp's revenue and a serious reason for churn and user dissatisfaction. 5% and 50% are random numbers, but you see the point, right?

Re: WhatsApp will no longer charge subscription fees

#78

Post by psykovsky »

riquito wrote: post #38
refrigerator wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People seem to say this all the time, but assuming it's true, what's inherently wrong with "being the product"?

> what's inherently wrong with "being the product"? Products are sold

Humans love being slaves...

Re: WhatsApp will no longer charge subscription fees

#79

Post by joncampbelldev »

lindig wrote: post #33
mintplant wrote: post #5

> Starting this year, we will test tools that allow you to use WhatsApp to communicate with businesses and organizations that you want to hear from. That could mean communicating with your bank about whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed flight. Sounds a lot like what WeChat has been doing in China with their Official Accounts. Best explanation I could find quickly: http://kn…

This. A messaging app like WhatsApp could become a platform. I'm not sure how the "apps" in this world would look like but I would find it great if text interactions (like on IRC, in the shell, or a text adventure) would have a comeback. Forget most of HTML/CSS and get back to basics ;-) In reality, some graphical UI will probably be necessary.

Yeah I visited china recently and I was very jealous seeing my girlfriend (grew up there) order taxis, pay for food and loads of other small tasks all through WeChat.

This should definitely be developed for WhatsApp (or something similar).

Re: WhatsApp will no longer charge subscription fees

#80

Post by pkd »

mynewtb wrote: post #43
pkd wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, this was my biggest gripe with it too. I did not start using WhatsApp till 2014 while all of my friends had already switched a couple of years back. I was happy with Facebook messenger, but i was forced to switch to be in the loop. Although since Facebook messenger also needs your number to verify the phone, if I remember correctly, it hardly matters. I have recently made the switch to Signal[1], and made my pa…

Sadly signal uses your number too.

Yes. But I'd rather give it to moxie than anybody else.
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