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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

#141

Post by Mahn »

> Acton said he tried to push Facebook towards an alternative, less privacy hostile business model for WhatsApp — suggesting a metered-user model such as by charging a tenth of a penny after a certain large number of free messages were used up.

> But that “very simple business” idea was rejected outright by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who he said told him “it won’t scale”.

> “I was like, ‘No, you don’t mean that it won’t scale. You mean it won’t make as much money as…,’

This doesn't scale because people would ditch WhatsApp in favour of a messaging app that didn't restrict the amount of messages you can send behind a paywall.

I know that hating Facebook is in vogue, but frankly with that line of thinking he sounds like would have made poor business/product decisions.

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

#142

Post by jaas »

coldcode wrote: post #129

You sell something for billions of dollars to a giant entity who makes money by selling user data, you should realize they will want to make money to pay for those billions. Most of the time such a purchase results in the original founders departing. You may as well leave at first opportunity. You can always build something else, now with your own money.

This comment doesn't add anything that isn't explained in the article more than once by Acton himself.

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

#143

Post by martinald »

jelling wrote: post #115
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.

The 10 cents isn't for the SMS. The 10 cents is for providing a lead channel, and either now or later, business level features around that lead channel. Intercom's pricing probably works out to something comparable for the average SMB. If the price is too high relative to the value then businesses won't use it and they'll have to drop the price. But there's nothing outrageous here.

It's actually more expensive to send a WhatsApp message via Twilio than an SMS via Twilio, which is a pretty weird way to price it.

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

#145

Post by bitL »

wdr1 wrote: post #133
ilovecaching wrote: post #80

You must be either the most naieve person on the planet or a complete moron to sell your company to an advertising company and not expect them to put advertising in your product. Of course he wasn’t noble enough to turn down the money in the first place and turn his product into a big buisness by himself. WhatsApp was literally just a user grab based on a ToDo list app idea released at the right time. Guy should spen…

> You must be either the most naieve person on the planet or a complete moron to sell your company to an advertising company and not expect them to put advertising in your product. I know both Acton & Koum from Yahoo!. To describe either as "naive" or "a complete moron" is ridiculous. If that is the depth of your thought, it would explain why you're writing angry comments on a message board while they are retired bil…

He wrote that as a counterpoint to the idea of hypocrisy that is radiating from Acton's latest statements - "of course he wasn't noble", which is what he pointed out as the likely explanation, not naivete nor "being a moron".

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

#146

Post by jlarocco »

ohazi wrote: post #86

> At a meeting over the issue he said Zuckerberg also told him: “This is probably the last time you’ll ever talk to me.” I realize this was probably said in fruatration, but I think it paints a pretty clear picture of Zuckerberg's arrogance and entitlement.

Because the "I'm the CEO, bitch" business cards weren't clear enough.

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

#147

Post by nickspacek »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #135
Illniyar wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's a reasonable position in response from an employee trying to "activate a clause written into their contract to allow them to immediately get all their stock if the company began “implementing monetization initiatives” without their consent" . Now whether or not he was in the right to demand it, when actually doing so I doubt anyone expected to have a working relationship after that.

Why would you agree to a contract with that clause if you aren't prepared for it to be invoked?

People change; perhaps they had previously discovered terms in which monetization would be agreeable. Then when that monetization happened, the other party had a change of heart and no longer consented. If done in bad faith I could see that annoying someone.

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

#148

Post by mankash666 »

ohazi wrote: post #86

> At a meeting over the issue he said Zuckerberg also told him: “This is probably the last time you’ll ever talk to me.” I realize this was probably said in fruatration, but I think it paints a pretty clear picture of Zuckerberg's arrogance and entitlement.

What?! Zuck dropped a cool $21B on the app - I believe he's entitled to expect a return on investment without being bullied, using a public business model everyone knew about. Facebook isn't a non profit, and zuck is actually accountable to investors

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

#149

Post by syrrim »

gammateam wrote: post #134
ilovecaching wrote: post #80

You must be either the most naieve person on the planet or a complete moron to sell your company to an advertising company and not expect them to put advertising in your product. Of course he wasn’t noble enough to turn down the money in the first place and turn his product into a big buisness by himself. WhatsApp was literally just a user grab based on a ToDo list app idea released at the right time. Guy should spen…

> Of course he wasn’t noble enough to turn down the money in the first place and turn his product into a big buisness by himself. That has nothing to do with nobility. So now Snapchat's founders are noble? They did those things you mentioned and your wording is a far cry from their reputation.

Snapchat are trying to become facebook. Whatsapps plan was to charge people money to use their service. Its amyones guess if that would have been successful, but it would have been far nobler than advertising.

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

#150

Post by bitL »

Illniyar wrote: post #116
ohazi wrote: post #86

> At a meeting over the issue he said Zuckerberg also told him: “This is probably the last time you’ll ever talk to me.” I realize this was probably said in fruatration, but I think it paints a pretty clear picture of Zuckerberg's arrogance and entitlement.

I think that's a reasonable position in response from an employee trying to "activate a clause written into their contract to allow them to immediately get all their stock if the company began “implementing monetization initiatives” without their consent" . Now whether or not he was in the right to demand it, when actually doing so I doubt anyone expected to have a working relationship after that.

But it was Mark & Co that went predatory and started implementing monetization initiatives, right? It still paints Mark in bad light, it's not like Koum & Co weren't entitled to that part of the contract and instead were the primary violators?
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