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Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

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Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#91

Post by Kurtz79 »

terhechte wrote: post #21
dsl wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of today: Smartphones outsold feature phones for this first time ever in India. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/samsung-smartphones-outse... From my personal experiences, international countries that have smartphone adoption use Viber, and the feature phone countries use WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is also really strong here in Germany and other parts of Europe. More of my friends are on WhatsApp than Facebook (only very few more though).

In Spain and Italy "sending a Whatsapp" is almost as idiomatic as "Googling something".

It has basically replaced texting. Even my mom use it, which for me it's the definition of "wildly popular".

Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#92

Post by rglullis »

On the other hand, how does Facebook expect to monetize these millions of users who are living on $10/day?

The number being thrown around yesterday was that Facebook paid $40/user. Bearing in mind that a good percentage of these users will never provide any ROI, it is one more reason to look like it was way overvalued.

Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#93

Post by [deleted] »

nicpottier wrote: post #18
apunic wrote: post #14

Wrong. Whatsapp didn't start with a J2ME app, they started with the smartphone versions first and later they provided J2ME versions when they had already significant market share.

The point isn't actually which came first, it is that they are ubiquitous. The difference between WhatsApp and Viber is that WhatsApp put far more effort in being on every possible platform, and for something that relies on network effects, that effort was worth it.

[deleted]

Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#94

Post by pm90 »

rglullis wrote: post #92

On the other hand, how does Facebook expect to monetize these millions of users who are living on $10/day? The number being thrown around yesterday was that Facebook paid $40/user. Bearing in mind that a good percentage of these users will never provide any ROI, it is one more reason to look like it was way overvalued.

That's a good question. I will invoke my "lack of foresight" card though, and say that there might be other future benefits that come out of this service

Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#95

Post by Kurtz79 »

jrockway wrote: post #80
coenhyde wrote: post #9

The key take away from this article is not to build your app in J2ME but to recognize how big the world is outside of America. American focused startups face lots of competition in a relatively small market.

The US is a pretty big market. 320,000,000 people, most with at least some disposable income. There are also plenty of advertisers that want to market their products to Americans, which means you can choose between ad-sponsored or for-pay business models.

I think the attraction of the US market is that is big AND homogeneous: the EU in its entirety for example has more people and comparable wealth, but it's made up of dozens of countries, each with its own language and regulatory laws, which complicate the development of any app/service.

Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#96

Post by rmc »

jrockway wrote: post #80
coenhyde wrote: post #9

The key take away from this article is not to build your app in J2ME but to recognize how big the world is outside of America. American focused startups face lots of competition in a relatively small market.

The US is a pretty big market. 320,000,000 people, most with at least some disposable income. There are also plenty of advertisers that want to market their products to Americans, which means you can choose between ad-sponsored or for-pay business models.

Yes it's big. But (a) there are more than ten times that outside the USA and (b) less competition.

Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#97

Post by yummyfajitas »

jrockway wrote: post #80
coenhyde wrote: post #9

The key take away from this article is not to build your app in J2ME but to recognize how big the world is outside of America. American focused startups face lots of competition in a relatively small market.

The US is a pretty big market. 320,000,000 people, most with at least some disposable income. There are also plenty of advertisers that want to market their products to Americans, which means you can choose between ad-sponsored or for-pay business models.

This. India is a billion people and maybe 10-20% have internet access. Of those 10-20%, the vast majority do NOT have $20k to spend ($20k is the average consumption level of the poorest Americans). China and the Philippines are certainly richer, but not drastically so.

Rough numbers: USA is a $16T economy, most of which is on the internet. China is an $8T economy, most of which is not. India is $1.8T.

There is certainly opportunity here, particularly in the long term (probably why Facebook bought them), which is why I'm in India introducing people to BayesianWitch. But be realistic about the market.

Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#98

Post by Jare »

sschueller wrote: post #32
terhechte wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WhatsApp is also really strong here in Germany and other parts of Europe. More of my friends are on WhatsApp than Facebook (only very few more though).

These numbers are going to drop significantly now. Everyone I talk to is unhappy about the acquisition and will switch to something else like telegram.

The uproar in Spain about WhatsApp switching to $1 per year was huge, noisy and... emphemeral. Line got a lot of new signups for a few weeks, but the only person I know that still considers using Line today didn't even have WhatsApp back then (but, like everyone else, does have it now).

Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#99

Post by joelthelion »

jrockway wrote: post #80
coenhyde wrote: post #9

The key take away from this article is not to build your app in J2ME but to recognize how big the world is outside of America. American focused startups face lots of competition in a relatively small market.

The US is a pretty big market. 320,000,000 people, most with at least some disposable income. There are also plenty of advertisers that want to market their products to Americans, which means you can choose between ad-sponsored or for-pay business models.

There are also plenty of companies targeting the US market. The rest of the world? Not so much.

To give you an example: there is no reddit equivalent in French. The closest things we have are a few French-speaking subreddits that have very few subscribers since reddit scares people who don't speak English before they can reach the French-speaking subreddits. We also have a few very poor quality reddit rip-offs with no users.

Granted, the French-speaking world is not as big as the US market. But 100 million people is already a decent target, don't you think?

Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#100

Post by mkesper »

Indyan wrote: post #23
mik3y wrote: post #2

Citation needed; I'd certainly love to know whether J2ME devices were a significant chunk of WhatsApp's actives, but there's zero data to back up the suggestion..

It's not just the raw numbers. I would love to move onto Telegram, which is more secure, has an API, and works from a desktop. But, I can't. There are about five or six odd people in my life (professional or private) that I message frequently. Even if 1 out of them isn't on a particular messaging platform, I can't adopt that platform wholeheartedly. With Fb Messages, Hangouts and every other popular smartphone orient…

Use SMS.
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