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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

#151

Post by mmmm »

swah wrote: post #149

Also, at least in Brazil, Whatsapp became a tool for journalists on the streets. A very interesting use...

And in Sweden (some) police men were discovered using Whatsapp - sending sensitive information about suspects[0]. They were discovered when they accidentally misstyped a phonenumber. Whoops.

The police in Sweden have some Blackberry encrypted services, but apparently these police men were not given one because they're expensive.

[0] Swedish source: http://computersweden.idg.se/2.2683/1.547026/polisens-chatt-...

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

#152

Post by SyneRyder »

mkesper wrote: post #100
Indyan wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not when SMS costs 29c per message. The free global text messaging that Whatsapp provides is potentially very disruptive to telcos.

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

#153

Post by kalleboo »

adventured wrote: post #135
keerthiko wrote: post #69

This. This is the answer I have always looked for. > "But, but, how is WhatsApp any different than iMessage / Facebook Messenger / Hangouts?" I have made this exclamation multiple times, and my friends in India and Singapore and other parts of Asia just turned up their palms with a "I dunno, everyone uses it and told me to get it." I refused to use it since I like to use as few messaging platforms as possible (just G…

"how is WhatsApp any different than iMessage / Facebook Messenger / Hangouts?" That's not the right question to begin with. The right question on this is: are those instant messenger users on WhatsApp worth much financially, will they ever produce financial returns, such that you justify $19 billion in any respect. I say no, the value of messenger bytes is nearly zero unless you can hold the users hostage and extract…

> I say no, the value of messenger bytes is nearly zero unless you can hold the users hostage and extract large sums from them (as AT&T and Verizon did on SMS).

Exactly. Look at all the messenger platforms of yesteryear - ICQ, MSN, AIM, Y!M. Did any of them make any money aside from some ad scratch money to keep the lights on?

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

#154

Post by corresation »

stefan_kendall wrote: post #143
corresation wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the 80% of android phones that are cheap and basic with small data plans and limited access to slow wifi Ignoring the fictional statistics, the cheap devices (e.g. Xiaomi) in countries like China still tend to be surprisingly powerful, and you hardly need to design down to them. And it's a rare app, beyond something like video conferencing, that puts any real burden on connectivity.

You absolutely need to "design down" if you want to support all of android. Go build an app with a reasonable number of users and you'll learn this the hard way.

Good thing I never said "all of android", as there will always be edges that in many cases aren't even worth targeting.

I did, however, say that many of the cheap phones are quite powerful. And they are. And as someone who has several widely deployed games on Android -- one category where there is much more demands than categories like WhatsApp -- it is absolutely no problem at all.

I generally test things on the Nexus One just as a bottom end comparator. Compared to many of the devices from bottom-tier manufacturers now, the Nexus One is grossly underpowered. It is always surprising what it can run with gusto.

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

#155

Post by avenger123 »

The message of the article is good but it's not seeing the forest from the trees.

Having just read the Forbes artcile on the company and Jan in particular, some interesting things stood out:

1) Jan had money to start and was able to take time to build a user base and find the real value in the App and didn't need to go around "raising money". The SMS component of the app wasn't the initial focus. The company didn't need VC funding at any point. He was able to focus on product development and revenues started to come in to cover costs.

2) Jan is a technical guy. He did the initial backend but hired out the iPhone development. Either way he was involved. He developed the initial app for the first 9 months or so before bringing on Ackon as a cofounder.

3) There is real value in the app. No one needs to question this. There's no big pitch deck's, presentations, etc.The app was allowed to grow organically due to its network affect. The business can scale into the millions and billions of users.

The $16 billion exit is largely due to number 3. It's rare for a lot of businesses to have that kind of scale.

Reading the Forbes article, my takeaway is that there is no way anyone can "build a path to a xx billion exit". What one can do is find a business model that can actually scale and generate real revenue. Maybe not to billion users or hundreds of millions in revenue but enough to take it outside of the "lifestyle" business mode. Also, having money of your own and technical skills to execute doesn't hurt one bit.

I think one lesson that I would take away for the younger crowd is - slow down a bit. Go work for a big corp or even a startup that pays well. Save every penny. Instead of spending that $100 on the get together every other night save it. Build your skills. At some point, go for it. You'll have money to live off, money to test your business model and a fallback if it doesn't work (get another job).

EDIT: Another big reason for the big exit is incredible leverage by Jan. He's got the most equity. He doesn't need Facebook. He is already a millionaire and the App can only get better. This is deal making at its finest. I can only imagine how much back and forth happened, each time with a bigger number from Facebook.

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

#156

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

furyg3 wrote: post #84
keerthiko wrote: post #69

This. This is the answer I have always looked for. > "But, but, how is WhatsApp any different than iMessage / Facebook Messenger / Hangouts?" I have made this exclamation multiple times, and my friends in India and Singapore and other parts of Asia just turned up their palms with a "I dunno, everyone uses it and told me to get it." I refused to use it since I like to use as few messaging platforms as possible (just G…

In Holland, WhatsApp dominates, and it's not a $10/day country. It dominates because SMS rates were too expensive here. Even when Mom & Dad would buy you an iPhone, kids were choosing Blackberries (!) as their primary phone because of internet messaging. WhatsApp was seen as something worked with non BB devices (iPhones, Androids). It pretty much murdered the cell phone providers who were giving away cheap data rates…

I'm from Spain, and curiously, what you say about Holland applies to Spain word by word (well, maybe with the exception of iMessage having a chance - iPhones never got to be very popular here).

It would be interesting if some made a study about price of SMSs in each European countries 4 or 5 years ago vs. WhatsApp adoption. Maybe the huge differences in market shares would be clarified.

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

#157

Post by OlivierLi »

sspiff wrote: post #134
merloen wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU is a $16.5T economy, most of it on the internet, vastly underserved by internet companies compared to the U.S. Even Facebook was English only until 2008. Big business opportunities are being missed there.

The smorgasbord of languages and cultures makes it harder to target though. But German, French and Spanish markets are big in their own right, especially if you consider you can reach other territories with them as well. (Austria, Switzerland and to some extent eastern Europe with German; Canada and much of connected Africa with French; Phillipines and Latin America with Spanish.)

I have to congratulate you for including Canada in the "Francophonie".

Usually people equate the French speaking world with France,Switzerland and Belgium.

Which is surprising since Canada has almost 7 million French speakers.

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

#158

Post by laurentb »

Pxtl wrote: post #142
joelthelion wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 n…

That's surprising since Reddit at least translates their site into every language - how many times have you googled something and gotten back a reddit hit for an English language reddit page but with Portuguese UI? so reddit has done more than many to internationalize their site. Probably a strip of language names along the top, taking you to language-filtered frpnt-pages would help. It would be ugly, but it's Reddit…

to most french people, it's the actual content being in english that isn't helping...

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

#160

Post by benihana »

merloen wrote: post #113
yummyfajitas wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 certai…

The EU is a $16.5T economy, most of it on the internet, vastly underserved by internet companies compared to the U.S. Even Facebook was English only until 2008. Big business opportunities are being missed there.

Please, the EU is made up of individual countries with individual languages with individual histories and cultures. Comparing it to the US is ridiculous.
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