Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook’s New Message to WhatsApp: Make Money

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 392 posts

Re: Facebook’s New Message to WhatsApp: Make Money

#71

Post by xkjkls »

EduardoBautista wrote: post #61
eitally wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah ... but a huge fraction of Whatsapp users (in India & Africa especially) use $100 (or less) phones....

Thousands of corporations have survived without having to worry about markets that don't have disposable income. You don't see Apple hurting because they aren't successful in the poorest areas in the world. It may sound cruel, but is it crueler than saying "Since you can't afford to pay, just give us access to your emails and private messages"?

Apple is a luxury good. You also don't see Gucci or Prada or Moet-Chandon unhappy because they can't be purchased in the poorest areas of the world.

Facebook has a different business model and a different mission than those companies.

Re: Facebook’s New Message to WhatsApp: Make Money

#72

Post by EduardoBautista »

aylmao wrote: post #69
EduardoBautista wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thousands of corporations have survived without having to worry about markets that don't have disposable income. You don't see Apple hurting because they aren't successful in the poorest areas in the world. It may sound cruel, but is it crueler than saying "Since you can't afford to pay, just give us access to your emails and private messages"?

It's cruel because WhatsApp is already there and people rely on it. Also worth noting, second point applies to Facebook but WhatsApp is encrypted.

WhatsApp was encrypted before the acquisition. And I am 100% confident that is why they want to find a way to monetize it directly. Not having access to data is not something they are used to.

You don't see them telling the FB Messenger team: "Hey, you need to make money."

Re: Facebook’s New Message to WhatsApp: Make Money

#73

Post by aphextron »

danirod wrote: post #14

Remember when WhatsApp required a subscription? One of the first changes made by Facebook after purchasing WhatsApp was to make it available for free. And now they're complaining they can't milk it enough? Oh dear. I know that a percentage of WhatsApp users would stop using the app if they started requiring a payment again –because apparently paying $1 per year for using an application on your $999 phone is outrageou…

Your highly detailed personal data is infinitely more valuable to them than a measly $1 subscription fee. Until the incentives around building massive surveillance apparatus and calling them "tech companies" goes away, this will always be the case.

Re: Facebook’s New Message to WhatsApp: Make Money

#74

Post by xkjkls »

sreyaNotfilc wrote: post #40
danirod wrote: post #14

Remember when WhatsApp required a subscription? One of the first changes made by Facebook after purchasing WhatsApp was to make it available for free. And now they're complaining they can't milk it enough? Oh dear. I know that a percentage of WhatsApp users would stop using the app if they started requiring a payment again –because apparently paying $1 per year for using an application on your $999 phone is outrageou…

I'm wondering if this pressure was in response to the 20% decline on FB stocks. Its as if the shareholders looked at their portfolio in search of companies acquired that could fill that void.

No, this has been going on for awhile now, especially when you look at the high profile defections of many of the original WhatsApp executives.

Re: Facebook’s New Message to WhatsApp: Make Money

#76

Post by zilian »

sreyaNotfilc wrote: post #40
danirod wrote: post #14

Remember when WhatsApp required a subscription? One of the first changes made by Facebook after purchasing WhatsApp was to make it available for free. And now they're complaining they can't milk it enough? Oh dear. I know that a percentage of WhatsApp users would stop using the app if they started requiring a payment again –because apparently paying $1 per year for using an application on your $999 phone is outrageou…

I'm wondering if this pressure was in response to the 20% decline on FB stocks. Its as if the shareholders looked at their portfolio in search of companies acquired that could fill that void.

Why does a 20% decline in one day of trading matter after such a bull run-up since IPO ? Its just a tiny warning.

Re: Facebook’s New Message to WhatsApp: Make Money

#77

Post by RestlessMind »

anuragbiyani wrote: post #66
danirod wrote: post #14

Remember when WhatsApp required a subscription? One of the first changes made by Facebook after purchasing WhatsApp was to make it available for free. And now they're complaining they can't milk it enough? Oh dear. I know that a percentage of WhatsApp users would stop using the app if they started requiring a payment again –because apparently paying $1 per year for using an application on your $999 phone is outrageou…

You are completely mistaken if you think adding a subscription-only would not reduce usage of WhatsApp by 10x at least. I am an Indian (WhatsApp's biggest market by far), and know for a fact that hardly 1% of people using it right now in India would be able/willing to set up a payment system AND willing to pay $1 for it (which is not as inexpensive as you think) when there are so many free alternatives. And then it i…

But those who can afford to pay (either for WhatsApp or for YT Premium) are typically the ones most lucrative for the advertisers. So if I am in charge of such products, what is the incentive for me to invest into these efforts which are only going to add complexity while not making any extra money? What is the compelling reason for offering an Ad-free mode if it is going to be adopted by a tiny fraction?

Re: Facebook’s New Message to WhatsApp: Make Money

#78

Post by russellbeattie »

Whatsapp had a great business model: $1 a year. With their current 1.5 billion users, that's nothing to sneeze at. It doesn't cost them $100M a month to provide the service.

I wish more companies were like Craigslist - happy to make an great profit and a lasting business by providing basic information services for a reasonable price. Instead, a bunch of MBAs want to rule the world by focusing on growth at all costs, so they can then turn around and squeeze their locked in users for every dime possible.

Re: Facebook’s New Message to WhatsApp: Make Money

#79

Post by xkjkls »

dlojudice wrote: post #48

Is monetizing through ads the only way to go? Is FB org trapped on its modus operandis (innovator's dilemma)? What about payments (charging a small fee for transactions) on their platform? The number of people already making business transactions on WhatsApp platform is huge, specially in Brazil [1]. A big bank in Brazil has already tried to grab this market by creating a keyboard with wire transfer integration [2].…

Square, a company with many years headstart, trades at a high multiple, and has many more integration points into commerce than WhatsApp does currently, trades at a market cap of $27 billion.

Given that Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion, trying a low probability strategy of trying to compete for market share where the best case scenario is $27 billion in value seems foolish.

Re: Facebook’s New Message to WhatsApp: Make Money

#80

Post by xkjkls »

rbreve wrote: post #75

They should try to apply the fortnite strategy, and charge for cosmetic features such as premium emoticons, and profile photos

Engagement is not nearly the same. There are 1.5 billion WhatsApp users, but how many would actually convert. I'd find it hard to see numbers higher than the low single digits.
Post reply on HN