Facebook Buying WhatsApp for $16B in Cash and Stock Plus $3B in RSUs

Post by auctiontheory » Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 6:52 AM UTC

superuser2 wrote: post #634

nullspace wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in countries with SMS charges The funny thing is that in places like USA, you pay exorbitant amounts (~20 USD per month) for text messaging (when the real cost should be almost 0), yet it's still not caught on here - which is kinda sad.

Not everyone has a smartphone. Many of the people I need to text (especially my parents) have feature phones with no data plans. Having to remember which messaging system you should use for each person is annoying, so most people just use one.

Post by nolok » Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 6:54 AM UTC

shubhamjain wrote: post #516

nullspace wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really "pop" technology. Surprisingly, it's not used much in the United States, but in India it's basically a replacement for text messaging. Everyone from a 13 year old child to my grand mom uses it to keep in touch with friends and family members across the globe. IMHO, they were able to get to such widespread everyday usage because they such awesome and reliable technology. Much better than what Google ha…

I thought it was the de facto messaging app across the world? Is there any particular reason why it is not used much in US?

Post by xerophtye » Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 7:06 AM UTC

jonnathanson wrote: post #539

nwh wrote: post #60

400,000,000 active users [0] 16,000,000,000 USD ---- $40 per user That's an incredible cost. We can assume Facebook is paying for the userbase, the app itself and it's infrastructure would basically run itself. It's less appealing when you realise that there's probably a miniscule fraction of WhatsApp users that don't have a Facebook account. > WhatsApp will remain autonomous and operate independently. You can contin…

"We can assume Facebook is paying for the user base" Respectfully, I don't know if that's the right assumption. Facebook has users. A metric shit-ton of them. :) In fact, many of WhatsApp's users are Facebook users, and vice versa. This isn't a user acquisition play. It's a user engagement play. Facebook -- like everyone else in the world -- is well aware that it has an engagement problem. It also has a retention pro…

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 7:13 AM UTC

Post by superuser2 » Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 7:14 AM UTC

JimDabell wrote: post #653

superuser2 wrote: post #631

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, it's mostly used as a drop-in replacement for text messaging for - people (especially preteens) with an iPod Touch or iPad Mini but not a smartphone/texting plan - people with internationally distributed friends - Android users who want iMessage functionality (friendly long messages, delivery confirmation, read receipts, sane group conversations, etc)

> people (especially preteens) with an iPod Touch or iPad Mini but not a smartphone/texting plan If I recall correctly, iOS WhatsApp is iPhone only. It won't run on anything that doesn't have a phone number and can't receive SMS or phone calls (necessary for activating the application).