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WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

nytimes.com

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Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#521

Post by uraniumjelly »

ezst wrote: post #419
crossroadsguy wrote: post #374

The frogs have been boiled enough by now gradually and very efficiently. They have been primed well. (In another news Signal still has focus on crytpo. Is this Firefox+Pocket level of stickiness and “we are right!”?).

It matters even more that Signal doesn't tolerate you using the client of your choice (like, one that doesn't push dark patterns and crypto in your face), or risk having your account suspended. It's time for people to wake up to the centralised platforms not having their users' best interests at heart. (And yes, my comments history has me extensively promote XMPP, no big secret here.)

We always need more XMPP shills around :).

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#522

Post by tigroferoce »

ReptileMan wrote: post #497
tigroferoce wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is two sided topic: - on one side there is the increasing number of features in WhatsApp that nobody asked for and that make the experience worse and worse, I agree. Yet, on the other side of the world a 1B people in China use WeChat for so many things beside communicating, so I understand Meta's appetite to become the West WeChat. Still I hate it. - on the other side there is the business model of Whats…

>so I understand Meta's appetite to become the West WeChat Revolut will probably get there first >It's 100% unrealistic that a global, always on, high availability, high security service is free. These things are expensive and they need to be monetized. Do you have any information how much whatsapp costs per user per month? Threema seems to be doing fine with just one 5$ forever.

I have no numbers. I remember that it was designed to be very efficient and easy to maintain, but this was before Meta bought it. Things probably changed, and keep in mind that they need to return of the 19B investment in 2014, so they are probably aiming at much more than just covering the costs.

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#523

Post by socalgal2 »

notpushkin wrote: post #395
whoisyc wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks to Australian customer protection laws, Steam has some of the most lenient refund policies among digital software stores. You can usually get a full refund if your play time is less than a few hours. Plus there are frequent sales. Don’t underestimate the psychological impact of making people feel “I have to buy this now or the deal will be gone.” I genuinely do not know how to get a refund from the google play…

> Thanks to Australian customer protection laws, Steam has some of the most lenient refund policies among digital software stores. You can usually get a full refund if your play time is less than a few hours. I think it’s actually worldwide?

Sony does not follow this, how are they getting away with it?

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#524

Post by JohnKemeny »

camillomiller wrote: post #450
d3vmax wrote: post #426

Alice Newton-Rex, head of product at WhatsApp: “Alongside of private messaging, people were saying they wanted to hear more about topics, teams and organizations across WhatsApp.” - I am pretty sure NO ONE asked to hear about more topics and organizations across whatsapp.

How do one cope on a day to day basis with this level of blatant bullshittery, apart from justifying it with a golden salary? Is this person aware that her role is to enact a farce, or even engineer such farce?

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#525

Post by bapak »

osculum wrote: post #485
bapak wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

WhatsApp used to be a paid app, and I paid for it back in the day, as did lots of my friends.

You can't have both a paid app and an app with billions of users.

You can use WhatsApp to talk to people across the world, you bet your ass that nobody would be using it in Indonesia and Brazil if it costed one dollar, vastly diminishing its value.

If you want a free app that only part of users worldwide can afford there's already iMessage.

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#526

Post by h1fra »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #516
b0a04gl wrote: post #427

everyone saw this coming the day facebook bought it, but the real issue isn't ads in status . it's that the platform is now locked into meta's attention monetization engine. the founders explicitly said no ads. now not only ads, but paid channels, algorithmic exposure, and user segmentation creeping in. most people won't switch because of network effects, so meta can keep tightening the screws. this isn't about reven…

The next one to enshittify will be Threads. Right now it's in the honeymoon stage where there aren't any ads so people are encouraged to use it and help grow the platform.

This one I don't mind, there is like 1% of actual posters, everyone else are bots or tweet copy pasters

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#527

Post by EbNar »

d3vmax wrote: post #426

Alice Newton-Rex, head of product at WhatsApp: “Alongside of private messaging, people were saying they wanted to hear more about topics, teams and organizations across WhatsApp.” - I am pretty sure NO ONE asked to hear about more topics and organizations across whatsapp.

I'd literally PAY for a mod taking away the "updates" tab. I don't care about stories nor I want channels shoved in my face. I just need to message someone, from time to time.

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#529

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

yarekt wrote: post #505
camillomiller wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do one cope on a day to day basis with this level of blatant bullshittery, apart from justifying it with a golden salary? Is this person aware that her role is to enact a farce, or even engineer such farce?

Pay for services that you use instead of forcing companies to rely on ad revenue to run their useful service? I get it though, no one wants to pay for 100s of little free marginally useful things we use every day, but if you look back at what whatsapp did in the beginning, the £3 a year they were asking is so worth it

I guess it feels worth it if you actually like it.

I've always hated WhatsApp but use it due to network effect: in my country you pretty much can't have a normal social life without it (and even things like customer service often use it as well).

When they started threatening with charging money, it felt like a punch to the gut. So I'm using this product I hate because I'm pretty much forced, as I'd rather be using Telegram or various others that I strongly prefer, and now that they've captured entire societies and communities with their free app, they're going to make ME pay?

My feeling is that capitalism is just not a good model for messaging apps with network effects. Regulation is sorely needed, at the very least for interoperability (like the phone network), and maybe more.

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#530

Post by SunlitCat »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #518
b0a04gl wrote: post #427

everyone saw this coming the day facebook bought it, but the real issue isn't ads in status . it's that the platform is now locked into meta's attention monetization engine. the founders explicitly said no ads. now not only ads, but paid channels, algorithmic exposure, and user segmentation creeping in. most people won't switch because of network effects, so meta can keep tightening the screws. this isn't about reven…

> most people won't switch because of network effects, so meta can keep tightening the screws. I don't have high hopes either but people did stop using Messenger in favor of WhatsApp, so they can absolutely stop using WhatsApp too. The "mistake" (if you're evil) those apps make is that they use your phone number as unique identifier, not a login. So if you switch app, you still have the phone number of all your frien…

Although those apps are still out there, i really miss those days were all you needed was some kind of unique identifier like a nickname, username or something like that an email address and some fancy password (and you weren't even pestered about to provide a phone number anywhere!).

Those were simpler times. :')

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