Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

restofworld.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 199 posts

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#101

Post by mixmastamyk »

akira2501 wrote: post #33
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…

Do you think it could be that general purpose computers tend to exist as household items here moreso than in other parts of the world? I see my phone as a small extension of a much larger and more capable computing base. Is that view even possible in other parts of the world?

Most folks no longer need a general purpose computer, like they once did to participate.

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#102

Post by theshackleford »

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…

Even in my country where iOS reigns supreme, there is very minimal usage of regular SMS/iOS messages functionality. Almost everyone uses some kind of 3rd party app.

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#103

Post by ianburrell »

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.

Another reason is that the Nokia Symbian and Series 40 phones weren't popular in the US.

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#104

Post by emchammer »

lostlogin wrote: post #56
orf wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s pretty simple: SMS functionality sucked and was super expensive. Before WhatsApp there was blackberry messenger (BBM). When I was growing up kids were running around with blackberry phones, marketed at businessmen, purely for BBM. WhatsApp was just this, except on a platform that didn’t suck. WhatsApp also predates iMessage and FaceTime.

> WhatsApp also predates iMessage and FaceTime. I was surprised to find this accurate. Though the lineage for a Mac user would likely include Messages and iChat, which go back further. iChat: 2002 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IChat Messages: 2007 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messages_(Apple) iMessage: 2011 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMessage WhatsApp: 2009 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp

Tidbit: The original iChat had an IPv6 link-local messaging function which worked entirely without Internet access or servers.

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#105

Post by jamesrr39 »

hocuspocus wrote: post #71
Zak wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found it surprising at the time that instant messaging apps that originated on PCs (ICQ, AIM, Skype, etc...) did not get widely adopted for this role despite most of the well-known ones releasing iOS and Android versions at the time.

ICQ and AIM were pretty much dead already. Microsoft really missed an opportunity, I remember using a third party app for Messenger and the mobile experience wasn't great. Skype was too focused on voice and video calls, not seen as an instant messaging app, even though it could very well have been. The biggest fumble really comes from Google though. I was using Google Talk as my main messaging app on PC, and Android…

The amount of perfectly functional messaging apps Google has gone through is crazy[1]. Each Google messaging app (GTalk, Hangouts, Meet, etc) is perfectly functional, but with an endless series of migrations, why would you stay around and every several months/year explain to the non-technical family members how the new version of Google's messaging product works?

Enter Whatsapp, which has been pretty consistent through the years, and of course guess which one people use.

[1]: Of course, it's crazy from a product management perspective - but from a "launch a new product to get the next promotion" perspective...

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#106

Post by throw310822 »

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…

> because Apple/iOS devices are very popular in the country

Apple is popular also in Europe, and Android has a 43% market share in the US. But in Europe nobody would use a messaging system that is broken for 40% of their contacts. So either in the US there is no intersection between the social circles of people that use Android vs Apple (highly improbable) or something in the US culture makes people willing to cripple their own experience in order to impose a tax on those in the outgroup.

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#107

Post by madeofpalk »

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…

> The description of WhatsApp here is exactly what Elon wanted X to become

I don't know what an "everything app" is, but that's not my experience with WhatsApp in Europe. It's just how you text or call everyone or businesses, but there's no payments or anything else going on beyond perhaps the occasional business chatbot. But even then, most 'businesses' I interact with over WhatsApp is just some person with a phone.

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#108

Post by beAbU »

ks2048 wrote: post #92

I'm in a place where WhatsApp is everywhere - "call/text me" is basically assumed to mean call or send me a message on WhatsApp. But, somehow I don't view it as a "cultural force" the way other social media sites are. I guess because it's just people talking/chatting/sending-pics with their contacts, so there's no algorithm driving/changing peoples' behavior. It's like the cultural force of everyone having cell phone…

WhatsApp is basically a conduit or utility at this point. It's a more usable layer on top of raw TCP/IP. Its completely unlike any of the social media services, even telegram.

I agree, there is nothing cultural about it. I think its because there are no "discovery" features. You cant search for groups or people or whatever. You need to know someone well enough that they have your mobile number, in order to invite you to social groups etc.

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#109

Post by Scoundreller »

wenc wrote: post #70
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…

This is why travel is so important -- it gets us out of our bubbles. Once I was brainstorming with a German colleague about a new business chat feature, and he said we should target WhatsApp as a channel. My American colleagues were like, "No one uses that these days." But Americans have little idea how popular WhatsApp really is in Europe, and Brazil (where it's colloquially called Zappy Zappy), and vast swaths of t…

> FB Messenger and iMessage are not as popular as we think outside of certain high GDP countries.

Always funny when someone puts an AirTag in their luggage and wonders why they get few updates in a developing country.

Uhhhh, yeah, their average baggage handler and airport employee doesn’t have an iPhone, that’s why.

Re: How WhatsApp became an unstoppable global cultural force

#110

Post by toast0 »

dcsommer wrote: post #91
noprocrasted wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It collects people's contacts and social graphs, which are then used to influence ad targeting in Meta's other platforms. That's why it insists so badly on having full access to your contacts.

This is absolutely not true and would immediately trigger lawsuits across the globe. WhatsApp and Meta data separation is extremely strict. Source: I work at WhatsApp and also https://faq.whatsapp.com/1303762270462331 > We need your contacts to provide the service, but don’t share your contacts with Meta.

I would be very careful about making such statements.

It is absolutely true that WhatsApp collects your contacts' phone numbers and your social graph. Unless WhatsApp has stopped doing that, in which case it should make a big announcement.

I don't know if the social graph is used outside WhatsApp, so that part may not be true, but it is within the privacy policy to do so (at least the one I see, EU may have a different one), the privacy policy says WhatsApp may share information with Meta to among other things:

> improving their services and your experiences using them, such as making suggestions for you (for example, of friends or group connections, or of interesting content), personalizing features and content, helping you complete purchases and transactions, and showing relevant offers and ads across the Meta Company Products;

And there have been waves of policy updates, notifications etc specifically to get these terms. That doesn't mean Find my Friends gets this information, but I thought there was at least discussion of it.

Post reply on HN