How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force • Hacker News Board

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#41

Post by bryant » Sat, Dec 14, 2024, 9:03 PM UTC

RustySpottedCat wrote: post #37

crop_rotation wrote: post #29

Whatsapp is such a big cultural force that many of my non technical friends and family members refuse to use anything else. No mail for full res photos is one thing, but you can't make them use anything else. Everything lives in Whatsapp. Todos, notes, reminders, sharing stuff (airdrop is the only exception if everyone involved has iOS). It is less because of whatsapp features (Nobody uses any features like payments)…

Uuh, where do you live? I haven't met a single person (technical or non technical) with such an attachment to a single app in my life.

There are many examples all over the world. Plenty of countries have people that have attachments to apps like whatsapp, telegram, etc.

All of my friends in brazil, for instance, are entirely attached to whatsapp.

I agree with the other reply. Where do you live? I'm surprised that you haven't encountered any. Every city in the US that I visited and every city that I visited internationally has people that attach themselves to one of either whatsapp, telegram, imessage, etc.

(I'm kind of excluding wechat here because wechat seems to be forced, but there are plenty of people who have this attachment to wechat as well because of its status as an omni app)

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#42

Post by orf » Sat, Dec 14, 2024, 9:04 PM UTC

Veserv wrote: post #28

orf wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope - nobody in Europe uses WhatsApp as a payments platform. Does it even have one? It succeeded because it was around at the time where SMS messages where expensive, but smart phones where exploding in popularity.

WhatsApp is not a "everything" platform in most of Europe. Do you open WhatsApp to play music, games, order takeout, order online, pay for rent? It is just a very popular chat application in most of Europe in contrast to a "everything" app like WeChat where you do all of those things. [1] https://www.whatsapp.com/payments/in

Nope, but by that definition almost no countries have an “everything app”. There’s like, one example in a very unique market?

It’s the “everything app” for messaging, friends and groups.

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#43

Post by nemomarx » Sat, Dec 14, 2024, 9:05 PM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #39

RustySpottedCat wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uuh, where do you live? I haven't met a single person (technical or non technical) with such an attachment to a single app in my life.

The question is where you live where this is not the case. You're the outlier here.

I think it's not as prominent as this in the US - probably because the equivalent is Apple messaging systems, if your family / friend group is all in that?

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#44

Post by okanat » Sat, Dec 14, 2024, 9:05 PM UTC

itikasp wrote: post #10

insane_dreamer wrote: post #8

What surprises me is that while WhatsApp has become an "everything" app in many parts of the world, much like WeChat in China, it has not done so in the US. In fact, I don't know anyone in the US who uses WhatsApp "internally" (the only times I use it is to communicate with people outside the US). The description of WhatsApp here is exactly what Elon wanted X to become (which clearly didn't and almost certainly now w…

Hi, I am one of the editors of this story, and we have also thought about this. In my opinion, one of the reasons why WhatsApp hasn't become the "everything app" in the US is because Apple/iOS devices are very popular in the country, where as in much of the world, Android is popular thanks to the availability of cheaper devices. Apple offers a suit of apps and features, including Facetime, that's not available for An…

WhatsApp was there before Apple. There was even Symbian versions of it.

The reason it got so popular in other counties is the extortionate pricing of SMSes. WhatsApp used (and still uses) very little data and with the lowest level data tariff you would still get more messaging quota. Moreover it costed nothing when WiFi on phones became a thing. Then sending pictures for free became a thing too.

They were also a smaller company and it didn't bother people to pay a small amount for all of the benefits they got.

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#45

Post by hocuspocus » Sat, Dec 14, 2024, 9:05 PM UTC

Zak wrote: post #35

insane_dreamer wrote: post #8

What surprises me is that while WhatsApp has become an "everything" app in many parts of the world, much like WeChat in China, it has not done so in the US. In fact, I don't know anyone in the US who uses WhatsApp "internally" (the only times I use it is to communicate with people outside the US). The description of WhatsApp here is exactly what Elon wanted X to become (which clearly didn't and almost certainly now w…

I'm reasonably confident WhatsApp never caught on in the USA because most American phone plans had unlimited SMS in the early 2010s when WhatsApp's popularity was growing elsewhere. International messaging was probably also a big driver in Europe, but less relevant in other markets.

International messaging is still relevant in many parts of the world that don't necessarily need to message neighboring countries, but have a big diaspora.

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#46

Post by dheera » Sat, Dec 14, 2024, 9:05 PM UTC

insane_dreamer wrote: post #8

What surprises me is that while WhatsApp has become an "everything" app in many parts of the world, much like WeChat in China, it has not done so in the US. In fact, I don't know anyone in the US who uses WhatsApp "internally" (the only times I use it is to communicate with people outside the US). The description of WhatsApp here is exactly what Elon wanted X to become (which clearly didn't and almost certainly now w…

For one, in other countries, people are perfectly okay with doing real business over a messaging app. I saw a doctor in Indonesia once and everything from appointment scheduling to follow up with the doctor was done on WhatsApp. They were okay sending medical tests, records, and bills on WhatsApp as well.

In China, same thing, on WeChat.

In the US, they want you to register some stupid MyHealth thing, sign some paper documents, and mail follow up shit to your residential address. They won't give you medical records on anything other than a fucking CD-ROM, even in 2024. Somehow in the US, a messaging app isn't "official" enough, and there's going to be the one first amendment brat* that doesn't want to install WhatsApp for privacy reasons.

* I say this jokingly, and do think we need to be harsher on corporations. However, my point is that in collectivist countries like Indonesia/China, if you don't install WhatsApp/WeChat or whatever is the chosen national app, you'll be the outcast and nobody will help you. The collectivist societies tend to embrace these apps for their convenience, rather than question their terms and conditions.

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#47

Post by gmuslera » Sat, Dec 14, 2024, 9:05 PM UTC

... and one ring to bind them.

Even if it were an open source app with open governance, the shaping of culture happens at a different layer. And that shaping sometimes is guided and not in the best interest of the users.

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#48

Post by Jtsummers » Sat, Dec 14, 2024, 9:06 PM UTC

brudgers wrote: post #12

itikasp wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, I am one of the editors of this story, and we have also thought about this. In my opinion, one of the reasons why WhatsApp hasn't become the "everything app" in the US is because Apple/iOS devices are very popular in the country, where as in much of the world, Android is popular thanks to the availability of cheaper devices. Apple offers a suit of apps and features, including Facetime, that's not available for An…

Facetime was announced as an intended open standard. Shortly, Apple realized their advantage of keeping it closed.

A patent lawsuit kept them from opening it up at the time. I think it's only recently been resolved.

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#49

Post by titanomachy » Sat, Dec 14, 2024, 9:07 PM UTC

crop_rotation wrote: post #29

Whatsapp is such a big cultural force that many of my non technical friends and family members refuse to use anything else. No mail for full res photos is one thing, but you can't make them use anything else. Everything lives in Whatsapp. Todos, notes, reminders, sharing stuff (airdrop is the only exception if everyone involved has iOS). It is less because of whatsapp features (Nobody uses any features like payments)…

I didn’t even know it could do things other than send messages. How do they do all that other stuff? Bots? Plain text chats?

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#50

Post by josu » Sat, Dec 14, 2024, 9:07 PM UTC

itikasp wrote: post #10

insane_dreamer wrote: post #8

What surprises me is that while WhatsApp has become an "everything" app in many parts of the world, much like WeChat in China, it has not done so in the US. In fact, I don't know anyone in the US who uses WhatsApp "internally" (the only times I use it is to communicate with people outside the US). The description of WhatsApp here is exactly what Elon wanted X to become (which clearly didn't and almost certainly now w…

Hi, I am one of the editors of this story, and we have also thought about this. In my opinion, one of the reasons why WhatsApp hasn't become the "everything app" in the US is because Apple/iOS devices are very popular in the country, where as in much of the world, Android is popular thanks to the availability of cheaper devices. Apple offers a suit of apps and features, including Facetime, that's not available for An…

The US was one of the few countries in the world where there were unlimited SMS plans. So by the time Whatsapp came around instant free messaging was already ubiquitous. This wasn't the case for most other regions, where Whatsapp actually brought free unlimited mobile messaging.