Live data from Hacker News

Facebook’s New Message to WhatsApp: Make Money

wsj.com

371–380 of 392 posts

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

#371
post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's literally the endgame of capitalism. Capitalism is, and always has been, about reaching a state where supply exceeds demand. One could argue that once a business reaches that stage, they can put up a Mission Accomplished banner and fire most of their workforce. But because of how wealth is distributed, workers always need to be working so they're incentivized to extend the work and market as long as possible.…

Agreed! A good reason not to like capitalism.

Or implementing limits to it so that we get mostly the good of it.

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

#372
post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd agree that some of the colonies would have improved had the colonisation not happened, but not everywhere: in some case it happened because the colonised powers did it. And most of them didn't have systems of education before the colonisation.

> but not everywhere: in some case it happened because the colonised powers did it. Could you please describe me such a scenario/situation where it would’ve or has had happened? The point of my argument hinges on the natives unability to improve due to the oppressors malevolence. > And most of them didn't have systems of education before the colonisation. Sure, most if not all of them didn’t have a Europian styled sy…

>Finally, I think we’ve digressed too far off the main thread of discussion.

We can still go a long way!

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

#373
post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed! A good reason not to like capitalism.

Or implementing limits to it so that we get mostly the good of it.

Right, it's a spectrum. I don't think there are many cogent adults (even "democratic socialists") that wish to do away with the majority of capitalism in our society: the nordic model.

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

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're an outlier by not being greedy.

Craigslist is a benevolent dictator, but it is no saint. Craigslist is greedy in a strange way. Craigslist is greedy over their the simplicity of their product and desire to hold on to their turf. The company makes more than enough money to offer all kinds of improvements that need not markedly change how the marketplace behaves. These features would not exploit the user or the user's experience. (In the spirit of th…

So you're saying change the simplicity of their product and give their data away?

That's literally their entire business model.

They could make so much money with all that data but stay true to their original goals of providing a classifieds service.

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

#375
post #313

Shit, I just convinced my parents to use WhatsApp instead of SMS. Time to start looking for an alternative. What's Telegram's business model? (yes, a good UI is a requirement and no, Signal isn't there yet).

Telegram just raising $1.7B in a crypto sale, which means it is the largest chat app not owned by a major corp or government. Plus familiar interface to Whatsapp, they won't even know you switched them.

Different sources wrote that the ICO may be retired for all the mess with regulations agencies.

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

#376
post #276
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can report from the trenches of a major software consulting firm: putting a sharp engineer who's even reasonably good at communicating in front of the C-suite is 5-20x more effective than using someone with an MBA.

But is it the best use for the engineer's time? Does the engineer want to talk to a bunch of strangers every ..say.. week?

The best use of an engineer’s time is whatever makes the company the most money. If talking to customers C-level people is a weekly requirement for that, then that is what the engineer needs to do.

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

#377
post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But is it the best use for the engineer's time? Does the engineer want to talk to a bunch of strangers every ..say.. week?

The best use of an engineer’s time is whatever makes the company the most money. If talking to customers C-level people is a weekly requirement for that, then that is what the engineer needs to do.

That's true if the company and the engineers exist in vacuum.

Very often, the engineer would get frustrated with this and look for work which is more interesting. That way, the company will be, increasingly, left with engineers who are there because they have no alternative.

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

#378
post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd agree that some of the colonies would have improved had the colonisation not happened, but not everywhere: in some case it happened because the colonised powers did it. And most of them didn't have systems of education before the colonisation.

> but not everywhere: in some case it happened because the colonised powers did it. Could you please describe me such a scenario/situation where it would’ve or has had happened? The point of my argument hinges on the natives unability to improve due to the oppressors malevolence. > And most of them didn't have systems of education before the colonisation. Sure, most if not all of them didn’t have a Europian styled sy…

I think you should read a book on the history of the British empire. The point you're responding to is basically correct. The idea of the "noble savage" as it was once called is a fantasy. The countries invaded and conquered by the British were typically brutal empires with medieval or lower levels of development, and had been that way for thousands of years with apparently little or no cultural development. The British were encountering local rulers with spears and they had Gatling guns. These societies had no technology, no science, no education or healthcare, primitive to non existent infrastructure of state and oh, they were mostly slave-oriented societies.

Yes the empire was a dictatorship that conquered them and in the early era, bought slaves from the local rulers. In the late eras the empire built infrastructure, education systems, brought modern medicine, tried to teach civilised values like not beheading your political opponents and having votes instead, and in some cases as the empire faded, left the countries in a vastly better state than they were found.

Colonialism is easily one of the most complex and ethically grey areas I've found when studying history. There is no evidence or reason to believe those societies would have ever advanced were they not conquered.

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

#379
post #324
post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because it's hard, and the people running them are sharp and smart, doesn't make it any more righteous or normal. Back in the Colonial times, sharp smart lads went to prestigious military schools and learned the complexities of how to subjugate conquered people. How to efficiently run a slave camp. How to squeeze every unit of labor off the peasants, etc. People went to these schools were probably very cultured,…

I believe the parent’s point was that running a business that is self-sustaining is actually a difficult endeavour, and doing what looks like ‘squeezing customers’ from the outside is actually what the business needs to do to survive. I think this is a reasonable point, considering that no matter what price point many services are offered at, customers will still complain that it’s too high. Leading me to my question…

The person you are responding to is talking about the bigger picture, whereas you are focusing on a local detail. While you make a really good point if you consider that you honestly thought you were talking about the same thing, instead you were not. Now it looks like you've subtly moved the goalposts, so that the person you are responding to has an argument that sounds ridiculous. Even though you've not responded to it at all.

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

#380

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,…

Ok, I agree that some MBAs can be full of it but can we already stop this MBA hate on HN? I feel like lots of people here think that if you build something then customers will surely come. I've got a huge surprise for you. You will have to sell your product and some of the MBA's are really great at that. In B2B a single sale can make or break your company when you're low on cash. You do your job and let them do their…

"Either we do this or they will" is a bad argument as justification for doing something unethical. The reason I think it is bad is because it is lazy, and it is lazy because it is circular. You say it is true, and because you say it is true (and you act as if it is), it is true. It's not very interesting to follow and it should also be pretty plain to see why it doesn't work as a justification.
Post reply on HN