WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#1

Post by petethomas » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 11:08 AM UTC

WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind
forbes.com

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#2

Post by nasredin » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 12:15 PM UTC

SavedYouAClick: because he is a billionaire.

I am amazed at just the plain stupidity of some of the writers of well nown papers.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#3

Post by cmer » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 1:49 PM UTC

nasredin wrote: post #2

SavedYouAClick: because he is a billionaire. I am amazed at just the plain stupidity of some of the writers of well nown papers.

It was actually a great article in my opinion. I don't think it's fair to diminish the quality of its content to such a short and easy answer.

Of course the title is a bit click-baity, I'll give you that.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#4

Post by tumetab1 » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 2:37 PM UTC

> The company is also set to charge businesses for messages they receive from potential customers via the WhatsApp platform — of between a half a penny and 9 cents, depending on the country.

Didn't knew this and takes back to the outrageous SMS pricing of 10 cents per SMS.

I as a consumer can change easily but it's sad to see that business will have to deal with this crap.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#5

Post by sschueller » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 2:40 PM UTC

tumetab1 wrote: post #4

> The company is also set to charge businesses for messages they receive from potential customers via the WhatsApp platform — of between a half a penny and 9 cents, depending on the country. Didn't knew this and takes back to the outrageous SMS pricing of 10 cents per SMS. I as a consumer can change easily but it's sad to see that business will have to deal with this crap.

This won't last. Users and companies will jump ship to another platform.

It is already a pain that I can't write bots on WhatsApp like I can on telegram.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#6

Post by goshx » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 2:40 PM UTC

tumetab1 wrote: post #4

> The company is also set to charge businesses for messages they receive from potential customers via the WhatsApp platform — of between a half a penny and 9 cents, depending on the country. Didn't knew this and takes back to the outrageous SMS pricing of 10 cents per SMS. I as a consumer can change easily but it's sad to see that business will have to deal with this crap.

While I understand the sentiment and generally agree with you, someone has to pay for the service, right?

And businesses have been paying for all those Toll Free calls customers are making. It's only toll free for the caller.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#7

Post by mattnewport » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 2:41 PM UTC

This article seems a little unfair to the WhatsApp founders when it suggests they should have known that any assurances Facebook made to them as part of the acquisition were obviously lies. Sure in 2018 it might be obvious to most of us that nothing Facebook says or promises can be trusted but I don't think that was necessarily as obvious when the acquisition happened and they can be forgiven for thinking they weren't being lied to.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#8

Post by scarface74 » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 2:44 PM UTC

mattnewport wrote: post #7

This article seems a little unfair to the WhatsApp founders when it suggests they should have known that any assurances Facebook made to them as part of the acquisition were obviously lies. Sure in 2018 it might be obvious to most of us that nothing Facebook says or promises can be trusted but I don't think that was necessarily as obvious when the acquisition happened and they can be forgiven for thinking they weren'…

What year would it be ok to be naive enough to think that any for profit company’s main motivation is not to make as much money possible?

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#9

Post by cgtyoder » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 2:44 PM UTC

nasredin wrote: post #2

SavedYouAClick: because he is a billionaire. I am amazed at just the plain stupidity of some of the writers of well nown papers.

Even if you're a billionaire - $850M is not chump change. I would have a non-trivial time walking away from that much money no matter how much I was worth.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#10

Post by eksemplar » Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 2:46 PM UTC

goshx wrote: post #6

tumetab1 wrote: post #4

> The company is also set to charge businesses for messages they receive from potential customers via the WhatsApp platform — of between a half a penny and 9 cents, depending on the country. Didn't knew this and takes back to the outrageous SMS pricing of 10 cents per SMS. I as a consumer can change easily but it's sad to see that business will have to deal with this crap.

While I understand the sentiment and generally agree with you, someone has to pay for the service, right? And businesses have been paying for all those Toll Free calls customers are making. It's only toll free for the caller.

If Skype hadn’t been a thing I’d agree, but it was.

The fact that we aren’t using peer-to-peer encryption in our message apps today is solely because companies want to charge you money for sending messages.

Because Skype had the capability to operate as a decentralized encrypted messaging app, and now 10-15 years later, there isn’t an app like that. Not because it’s not possible but because giant tech companies have become the equivalent of fossil fuel companies, killing innovation by buying it and absorbing it, altering it or shutting it down.