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

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

#661

Post by russell_h »

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?

By the time smartphones were widely adopted in the US, SMS already had massive market penetration. Trying to adopt something else when your entire social network already uses SMS is a losing game.

This is why, IMO, Apple, Google and Facebook are the only companies really in a position to change the messaging game in the US. There is space for newcomers (see: Snapchat), but they're going to have to work hard to spread beyond their initial niche.

Apple is driving iMessage adoption via iOS, albeit mostly only for messaging between iOS devices. Facebook has a solid mobile install base already, but they can't seem to figure out how to convince users to use Facebook messaging. It actually works really well for me, but no one I know actually uses it.

Google seems to be in the process of merging Hangouts and SMS. They're already the same app on Android, but you get to pick the protocol. Their logical endgame is to move all messaging to the Hangouts protocol, and fall back to Google Voice to deliver messages to users who don't have a Hangouts client.

If Google can pull this off I think they're going to absolutely kill it, but they seem to be having a lot of execution problems.

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

#662

Post by paraboul »

pyrrhotech wrote: post #641
discardorama wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatsapp charges $1/year IIRC. So, with 400MM users, you can expect ~$400MM/year revenue?

AFAIK that's only the plan. right now they have very little if any revenue. People use Whatsapp because they are too poor to afford text messaging. My guess is that lots will leave even at 1 USD per year

Too poor? No. User experience, group messaging, fast picture upload.

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

#664

Post by atmosx »

notahacker wrote: post #363
pisarzp wrote: post #136

This is just ridiculous. As per their latest financial statement, $16B is $B more then they have in the bank. Part of that is stock, but still... On top of that, it's 8 times more then their 2013 net income! People say it's defensive play, but to me it looks like overly aggressive play with huge risk and very little potential. Facebook already has huge market share with their messaging platform, and they really don't…

$12bn of it is stock (as is the employee grant) so in fairness they're paying prices inflated by optimism about retaining and monetizing social network users mainly with currency inflated by optimism about retaining and monetizing social network users.

The entire operation is incredibly inflated on both sides.

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

#665

Post by JimDabell »

superuser2 wrote: post #660
JimDabell wrote: post #653

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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).

You do not. My brother uses it heavily on his WiFi-only iPad Mini.

Perhaps it's country-specific? I just double-checked and the App Store won't list it in the search on my iPad under iPad-only or iPhone-only, nor in Purchased. I'm in the UK.

When I first bought WhatsApp, I bought it in iTunes on my Mac. I only had iPod touches and iPads at the time, and it wouldn't sync the application to any of them. I seem to recall that I tried to follow a direct link to the App Store entry from Mobile Safari, and it said that my devices were incompatible.

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

#666

Post by gbog »

nolok wrote: post #654
shubhamjain wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Some countries use Line rather than WhatsApp

Or WeChat, which is quite big in China.

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

#667

Post by mehrdada »

boomzilla wrote: post #466
scrabble wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first year free just ran out. They sent me a message that I get to continue for another year for free. It's hard to believe anyone pays for this.

Have you been a heavy user? I have a sneaky feeling that they will let light users have it free, but start charging heavy users. That makes sense, because if you are a light user, there is not a lot incentive to pay.

Due to network effects, it makes very much sense to let frequent users ride freely (perhaps not bandwidth hogs, but frequent communicators with multiple friends), as they'll bring in and keep many other users in the system.

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

#668

Post by x0054 »

x0054 wrote: post #657

Could someone explain to me why WhatsApp is more popular then say Skype or any of the numerous competitors. I looked at it for the first time today. I find the design of the app to be a bit poor, at least on iOS6. Overall it's a good app that functions well, from what I can see. But so does Skype, for instance. Also, the lack of a PC/MAC client is kind of a letdown. I know it's silly to argue with facts, clearly peop…

I think HN #2[0] article at the moment just answered my question. J2ME is the key, I can see that.

[0] http://blog.textit.in/your-path-to-a-$16b-exit-build-a-j2me-...

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