11–20 of 185 posts
Which is cool in itself. What is deeply regrettable is the fact that they ended up selling to Facebook and thereby contributing to Facebook's aggressive and relentless mass surveillance system.
Why do we adhere to the assumption that number of users is the ultimate metric of software success? I would like to hear from devs who aren't interested in expanding for the sake of expanding, who still consider their apps to be very successful.
The messaging app no one uses in Asia?
Are you serious? Everyone and their grandma in India uses WhatsApp. It's so pervasive that it's almost like the only means of communication for people with smartphone and internet access.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> seemingly unlimited amount of capital Did they burn through lots of money? > no immediate pressure to turn _any_ revenue/profit Didn't some people pay for it?
They lost something close to $138MM the year before Facebook purchased them. https://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dealbook/2014/10/28/faceboo...
It's super easy to focus on a single metric (user growth) when you have a seemingly unlimited amount of capital and have no immediate pressure to turn _any_ revenue/profit. This article does a massive disservice to those who are not as fortunate who will inevitably be lead into failure. Note, this should not discredit the more interesting and glorified aspects of WhatsApp (strong leadership, technical aptitude, tech…
> seemingly unlimited amount of capital Did they burn through lots of money? > no immediate pressure to turn _any_ revenue/profit Didn't some people pay for it?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They lost something close to $138MM the year before Facebook purchased them. https://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dealbook/2014/10/28/faceboo...
I'm a philistine, can someone explain how they paid their engineers when they lost SO much money?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you serious? Everyone and their grandma in India uses WhatsApp. It's so pervasive that it's almost like the only means of communication for people with smartphone and internet access.
Whatsapp is no 1 market share in every country. If not no 1, only lost from wechat
I'm pretty sure you made up every claim you just wrote. Why would you bother doing that?
WhatsApp: circumvent cellphone texting charges
Airbnb: circumvent hotel laws
Uber: circumvent taxi laws
Amazon: circumvent state taxes
Facebook: circumvent people's anonymity online
Google: circumvent copyrights (take people's content slap on ads)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you serious? Everyone and their grandma in India uses WhatsApp. It's so pervasive that it's almost like the only means of communication for people with smartphone and internet access.
Whatsapp is no 1 market share in every country. If not no 1, only lost from wechat
Notably - as you mentioned - Wechat in China, but also Kakao in Korea, Zalo in Vietnam and Line in Japan and Taiwan, where very few people use Whatsapp.