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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

#61

Post by scarface74 »

icebraining wrote: post #52
394549 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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? > There is such a thing as business ethics. > Facebook's complete disregard for them should not be the norm, even if it, sadly, might be more often than not. It's alarming how businesses' lack of business ethics is getting normalized by comments like the grandparent's. We should…

The "normalization" slur is too often thrown at those who just have their eyes wide open. Yes, we should require them. The WhatsApp founder didn't attempt that, he just hoped they wouldn't.

Yes and the only way you can “require” anything when doing business is through a written contract with clauses that specify what happens when the contract is breached and the jurisdiction where the breaches will be adjudicated.

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

#62

Post by icebraining »

snthd wrote: post #35
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...

[flagged]

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

#63

Post by jamesmcnalley »

I get the frustration of seeing your pride and joy used in ways that you hoped to avoid. But he likely would have retained more control of WhatsApp if he stuck around and played ball. Now he has some money, zero control, and he has absolutely scorched the earth for his co-founder or anyone else who wants to minimize ads or find alternate monetization options.

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

#64

Post by buboard »

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…

> buying it and absorbing it, altering it or shutting it down

and making it free, bankrupting any possible competitor

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

#65

Post by scarface74 »

mattnewport wrote: post #16
scarface74 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

That's not the issue, the issue is whether assurances that were made to them, with or without some legal backing, could be trusted. Companies can be motivated by profit and still be honest.

What if the person who made the promise to you even in good faith later was overruled by the board/shareholders, etc?

You should never “trust” anyone who you do business with outside of a contract.

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

#67

Post by jiveturkey »

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'…

are you serious? these guys aren’t dummies.

there was an anti-monetization clause in the contract. you don’t put that there out of an over abundance of caution. they knew exactly FB’s intentions. they maybe didn’t expect it to come home to roost so quickly, but they should have. again, these are smart guys. they just couldn’t get past the billions, plain and simple.

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

#68

Post by buboard »

toast0 wrote: post #36
eksemplar wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

so offline messaging was such a difficult thing to solve without selling? I doubt it. Skype hasn't improved much, not only because MS is not doing its best, but also ISPs typically throttle that.

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

#69

Post by scarface74 »

cd_et_toss wrote: post #14
scarface74 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It hasn't been always true, historically, that for-profit companies seek only to enrich their shareholders at all cost. https://www.boston.com/news/policy/2018/08/16/elizabeth-warr... "Warren attributes those problems to a shift, which she says dates back to the 1980s, in the obligations of corporations — from balancing responsibilities to all their stakeholders — including both employees and stock owners — to priori…

It’s not about short term vs long term profit. Even when a company is far sighted enough to care about long term profit, every step they take in the short term is in furtherance of that goal.

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

#70

Post by buboard »

vezycash wrote: post #48
eksemplar wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>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. Encryption export laws. And most importantly, pressures by three lettered agencies to target individual bad actors. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/09/skype...

there are strong encryption apps though, and the bad actors are already probably using those.
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