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

Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

441–450 of 533 posts

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#441

Post by jjulius »

AnthonyR wrote: post #328
outime wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's really not as hard as it seems Only on HN could someone post a take like this without getting laughed at. Outside our very geeky HN bubble, hardly anyone (let's say in Europe, but all my friends in the US use it as well) uses anything other than WhatsApp. There's literally zero reason for the average user to switch.

Haha I love the super out of touch takes on here sometimes. Not using WhatsApp or Facebook where I live absolutely introduces major difficulty to communication and even every day interactions where almost 100% of communication in various social groups is happening on these platforms. Should I ask them to move?

Where there's a will, there's a way. If your friends want to, they'll find you.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#442

Post by akdev1l »

bko wrote: post #419
akdev1l wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would you want people to think you're poor or cheap, except maybe when you're shopping for a car. Personally, I don’t generally think about how other people perceive if I have money or not.

Ah, you must be one of those that cuts his own hair, shops strictly at thrift shops and wears bags as shoes.

I get my hair cut at a place where it costs $45 and I get a haircut every 1-2 months at best.

I wear my shoes until they break. I wear Vans Sk8 old skool high tops most of the time.

I am also on track to retire by 40 if all goes well. (Which is to say I don’t have THAT much money)

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#443

Post by lionkor »

pj_mukh wrote: post #11

I would pay $49.99/mo for an unlimited plan that brings me only my friends' status updates (not their hyper-political likes and comments), just their life updates. Daily stories are great too. But JUST that, no influencers, no ads. I realize Meta's data shows that our user revealed preferences tells them that we like all the dopamine hijacking garbage but that's like saying "Well users like drugs, so we gave them mor…

You can ditch all that and talk to your friends (text them or call them or visit them) for almost free, actually. You can keep up with people without a middleman.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#446

Post by otikik »

qqtt wrote: post #98

I'm going to go against the grain here and say this is probably a positive thing for Meta products, and honestly every other "free" service to provide these kinds of revenue avenues. How many times do we hear things like "if the product is free, you are the product" - well, the consequence of that is development resources tend to be pulled into directions that benefit advertisers. By having material subscription reve…

> if the product is free, you are the product

I used to think like that, but then I realized that

> if you are paying for the product, nothing guarantees that you are not the product anyway

Companies like money and they will have no qualms against double dipping. Even if you refuse to be their customer (and thus they lose the revenue coming from you) as long as the majority of their customers are ok with being a product, they will keep doing it.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#447

Post by phplovesong »

Facebook is so doomed. I recently logged in (after close to 10 years), and whooah the feed was wild.

90% was these weird pages having very sexual teasing shorts, or bikini girls / latex pants etc. None of the pages were something is had ever seen before, or even followed.

The rest 9% was AI gen low qulity shorts, and the remaining 1% was actually from someone i did was friends with, but even thise seemes like some tool had generated them, as in "follow my new business page" etc.

The facebook that once was seem to be totally gone by now, and im not even sure what it is anymore.

I never got an instgram account, but i guess its the same low quality shit over there.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#448

Post by doctorwho42 »

avd201 wrote: post #204
apsurd wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heard it here on HN: problem is paying a subscription is purely additive. eventually, inevitably, they’ll take the subscription AND sell your data, serve you ads, etc. it being against what your payment contract states just means they’ll reinvent and rename the tiers.

If you don't pay for a product, you are a less valuable product than if you'd pay for the product.

Eh, and Microsoft has shown that even if you pay they will still fuck with the product and . make it worse

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#449

Post by TFNA »

isolatedsystem wrote: post #232
outime wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's really not as hard as it seems Only on HN could someone post a take like this without getting laughed at. Outside our very geeky HN bubble, hardly anyone (let's say in Europe, but all my friends in the US use it as well) uses anything other than WhatsApp. There's literally zero reason for the average user to switch.

I'm in Europe, with a bunch of non-geeky friends, coming from all walks of life who have Signal installed. As a sibling comment to yours stated, the hardest decision was deciding to stop using Meta. I have a militant "let the leaves fall where they may" attitude towards stopping relationships with companies I detest (Microsoft, Amazon, Meta...) It all always works out fine.

I travel a lot within Europe and socialize, and Signal adoption is pretty limited continent-wide. You are lucky. Even when people do have Signal, a stock response if I ask “Do you have Signal?” is “Oh, sure, I use it to buy drugs”, which probably doesn’t help the app’s image in the eyes of the surrounding society.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#450

Post by TFNA »

wyclif wrote: post #161
outime wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's really not as hard as it seems Only on HN could someone post a take like this without getting laughed at. Outside our very geeky HN bubble, hardly anyone (let's say in Europe, but all my friends in the US use it as well) uses anything other than WhatsApp. There's literally zero reason for the average user to switch.

WhatsApp as the only contact point is a pretty strong signal that the user is from a developing world country. I'm not from that part of the world, so I don't use WhatsApp.

As the other person mentions, WhatsApp adoption is vast in Europe, including the bulk of the continent where “developing world country” isn’t a reasonable label. I travel frequently across Europe, and when I book reception-less accommodation, WhatsApp is often the only way that self-check-in details are provided. Saying that “I don't use WhatsApp” might even lead to the reservation being immediately canceled on their part.
Post reply on HN