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What’s Up With Whatsapp? Facebook Might Want To Buy It, That’s What

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Re: What’s Up With Whatsapp? Facebook Might Want To Buy It, That’s What

#31

Post by barry-cotter »

analog wrote: post #25
ComputerGuru wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guys, he's actually right. There are 204 sovereign states (secondary source, can't find the primary [0]), plus a handful of countries that are disputed (Palestine, Kosovo, etc.) There just simply aren't 250 countries. 0: http://imgur.com/rNDj4 (At the time of posting, parent was below zero)

States != Countries The UK is a single state, but comprised of at least three countries. England, Wales, Scotland. Northern Ireland would not count as a 'country' I guess, though Ireland itself obviously is.

Whether Northern Ireland is a country depends on who you're talking to. And possibly the day you talk to them.

Re: What’s Up With Whatsapp? Facebook Might Want To Buy It, That’s What

#32

Post by justincormack »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #22
i386 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Palestine is recognised by the UN as a state now.

Yes, I was actually following that quite closely. However, I don't believe UN recognition is the definition of sovereign state. A country that is permanently occupied is hardly sovereign, no? If they don't have control of their borders, are under blockade, can't police their own, don't have say over who enters and leaves their territory, don't have their own currency, and are being literally split into 3 disjoin, non…

Being split into disjoint pieces is not a problem. Russia is a country despite having a disjoint piece.

Re: What’s Up With Whatsapp? Facebook Might Want To Buy It, That’s What

#34

Post by Bullshituserid »

analog wrote: post #25
ComputerGuru wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guys, he's actually right. There are 204 sovereign states (secondary source, can't find the primary [0]), plus a handful of countries that are disputed (Palestine, Kosovo, etc.) There just simply aren't 250 countries. 0: http://imgur.com/rNDj4 (At the time of posting, parent was below zero)

States != Countries The UK is a single state, but comprised of at least three countries. England, Wales, Scotland. Northern Ireland would not count as a 'country' I guess, though Ireland itself obviously is.

But the U.S. is a single country, comprising many states. IT'S A CRAZY WORLD.

Re: What’s Up With Whatsapp? Facebook Might Want To Buy It, That’s What

#36

Post by sssparkkk »

Am I the only one who's a bit sad that the biggest success of a nice open-standards protocol (XMPP) has been it's usage in a closed-down proprietary form? I mean, Whatsapp have done some cool stuff, but I really would have liked to finally see a dominant but open instant messaging network.

Howcome Google hasn't bought these guys?

Re: What’s Up With Whatsapp? Facebook Might Want To Buy It, That’s What

#37

Post by fakeer »

kang wrote: post #13

My friends here in India use it because its free the first year. Almost everyone I know is on Whatsapp. But the moment they have to pay, everyone will switch. I know of nobody in person (who own the latest pretty expensive smartphones, except iphones which are not big in India) to have "ever paid for any" app. Its not about being stingy, but more of a mentality where we know a hack/solution/pirated version/alternativ…

Besides, there's a small(very small or even very tiny) subset of mobile users who are actually using WhatsApp. Not even 50% of my smart phone using friends have 3G activated. Not 100% have Internet on mobile. So, you have to use SMS anyway, if you require messaging. + WhatsApp is very much broken - a broken identity management is one of the many broken things.

I ended up being textually abused by two persons when I first started using WhatsApp few months ago. The old cell numbers of many of my friends were assigned to others when they changed numbers and those were still in my phonebook. My friends forgot to dissociate the numbers from WhatsApp database and when I pinged(didn't pester) them(assuming they are my friends) two of them got pissed off real bad. And I was like - "WTF! This is WhatsApp?". So, WhatsApp assumes that as long as the user hasn't dissociated the numbers that user is still using WhatsApp and is doing with the same phone/account. See bottom

>>"the moment they have to pay, everyone will switch".

I can confirm at least three of my friends have already uninstalled the app after first year. It was eihter money or almost mostly very limited usability. the new player http://hike.in looks very promising. Hope it's not vapour. Especially the feature where it fills a huge hole - the other party doesn't need to have http://hike.in app installed and an internet connection is not a requirement for both the parties.

>>of nobody in person to have "ever paid for any" app

It's not as common place as in western countries(or purchases on that scale) but I sure know a lot in my circle who use paid apps. Really many. Well, I also pay for a lot of apps both on my Galaxy Nexus and Macbook Air but when it comes to buying one of those double digit dollar apps I do stop before buying and think whether I really need this? And is the free alternative isn't good enough? I have never had YES for either of the two questions, except once. I think this is good :-)

bottom: That was the last day I used WhatsApp. KakaoTalk is far better in that way, but except Koreans no else uses the app it seems.

Re: What’s Up With Whatsapp? Facebook Might Want To Buy It, That’s What

#38

Post by fmavituna »

Whatsapp is the perfect example of "solve something people need". You don't need to solve it "perfectly" or "10 times better".

Combined with network and lock-in effects, it's a great business on a good enough application and an obvious idea. Which makes it even more impressive.

P.S. I think many tried to do similar things before or after but failed. So I'm not quite sure what make whatsapp stand out. Any ideas? First comer? Better UX? Cheaper? Better cross-platform support? Better marketing?

Re: What’s Up With Whatsapp? Facebook Might Want To Buy It, That’s What

#40

Post by fakeer »

buro9 wrote: post #21
ComputerGuru wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guys, he's actually right. There are 204 sovereign states (secondary source, can't find the primary [0]), plus a handful of countries that are disputed (Palestine, Kosovo, etc.) There just simply aren't 250 countries. 0: http://imgur.com/rNDj4 (At the time of posting, parent was below zero)

Wolfram thinks that Scotland isn't a country ( http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=is+scotland+a+country ) even though it has all of the things required by the definition offered by Wolfram. Even the equivalent of a Foreign Secretary in the Cabinet for External Affairs. If the definition Wolfram cared to use was "Passport issuing state recognised by other passport issuing states" then we might agree.

I am sure it used sth official like that. Otherwise the number of countries maybe significantly more than what it is today.
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