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

forbes.com

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

#31

Post by artemisyna »

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.

Don't quote me on this since it's partially hearsay. However, this isn't a "trying to get $$ out of businesses" measure as much as an anti spam.

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

#32

Post by goshx »

eksemplar wrote: post #10
goshx wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Before the MS acquisition Skype was not completely free. It had subscriptions and you could buy credit to reach the PSTN, however it was not profitable. Money would eventually run out, as it happens to every company that keeps an unsustainable product alive.

Of course we as consumers would love to have everything free, but someone is footing the bill.

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

#35

Post by snthd »

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'…

The "dumb fucks"[0] thing came out in 2010. The WhatsApp acquisition was in 2014.

[0] https://www.businessinsider.com/well-these-new-zuckerberg-im...

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

#36

Post by toast0 »

eksemplar wrote: post #10
goshx wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Do you remember how skype worked in 2011? You could send messages anytime, but they would only be delivered if you and your conversation partner were both online at the same time. If you used two computers, the conversation history would sync up if both computers were online simultaneously -- or you would sometimes get it from your conversation partners if they were online.

That's fine in the world of desktops with always on connectivity (often not even NATed), but it doesn't work on iPhones were when your app isn't on screen, it isn't running (they have a limited amount of background execution these days), and anyway connectivity is spotty.

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

#37

Post by goshx »

pengstrom wrote: post #24
goshx wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Isn't more an issue about starting out free, attracting business to the platform and then start charging?

They don't have an offering for businesses other than having a platform with a huge amount of customers and potential customers. Businesses have been trying to use it to explore the potential, but I'm sure they'd be happy to pay for something that can scale and be used by multiple users, like in a contact center.

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

#38

Post by dasil003 »

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'…

Nah, 2014 makes no material difference. It's not the recent scandals that have somehow revealed Facebook to be the spiritual successor to Microsoft's "embrace and extend" strategy; this has been obvious for at least a decade. Maybe the public didn't realize it yet, but anyone in tech, especially a successful founding team would have been well aware.

That said, I'm not going to demonize these guys. Brian Acton clearly is repentant and putting his money where his mouth is in terms of supporting Signal, and that's worth a lot more than some principled nobody who never has enough clout to further his own principles in society.

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

#40

Post by the_duke »

Jyaif wrote: post #11

How an individual can leave $850M on the table to prove a point blows my mind. I'm in awe at that guy, but I can't help but think that with $850M he could have funded so many interesting projects/research.

I'd call it suboptimal.

Why not wait out the few months, then donate all the money to privacy focused NGOs / investing in competing businesses?

That would be a much more impactful way of proving a point, imo.

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