71–80 of 145 posts
I assume the motivation for pulling this out of the archive is the WhatsApp purchase. However, I don't think this comparison is truly fair. Not only is WhatsApp monthly adding over twice the userbase ICQ had at the time of purchase, but it is also actually collecting revenue from them. WhatsApp is a real company with real monetization strategies.
Someone mentioned about trying to find out if their have ever been any other chat services that have really made a lot of money on it's own, and it sparked memory of an acquisition that didn't happen quite that long ago, Microsoft buying Skype in 2011, and here is a good recent article about it: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/30/skype-micr... The bullet point that stands out for me is this: • Problems…
Someone mentioned about trying to find out if their have ever been any other chat services that have really made a lot of money on it's own, and it sparked memory of an acquisition that didn't happen quite that long ago, Microsoft buying Skype in 2011, and here is a good recent article about it: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/30/skype-micr... The bullet point that stands out for me is this: • Problems…
I still remember back in 2000 when we still had AOL. I was eight or nine and I had my own aol account. You could have a dozen or so sub accounts on the main one. And because it was a "kids account" there were chat rooms for kids. Being the lovely kid that I was, of course I went into one and was like "how the f*ck are you all?" Well the kid chat rooms were moderated and our entire AOL account was disabled. My mom had…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To contextualize requires relativity. ICQ in 1999 had about 45 million users. There were only 248 million internet users back in 1999. That's 18% of mostly international users. AOL was optimistic. So much so this is the actual response when they beat the street during their earning reports. "(ICQ is) growing like a weed," said AOL President Bob Pittman. "Monetizing it" will be "relatively easy," he added. WhatsApp ha…
10554049 how do I remember that?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To contextualize requires relativity. ICQ in 1999 had about 45 million users. There were only 248 million internet users back in 1999. That's 18% of mostly international users. AOL was optimistic. So much so this is the actual response when they beat the street during their earning reports. "(ICQ is) growing like a weed," said AOL President Bob Pittman. "Monetizing it" will be "relatively easy," he added. WhatsApp ha…
10554049 how do I remember that?
I have no idea, but it's still stuck in my mind to this day!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
oh and the fact that whatsapp actually is very profitable
If you can call a P/E of 800+ "very profitable"? Making $20M a year profit is no small thing at all, and I'm sure if it was bought for a billion, you'd see far less comments on the subject.
I assume the motivation for pulling this out of the archive is the WhatsApp purchase. However, I don't think this comparison is truly fair. Not only is WhatsApp monthly adding over twice the userbase ICQ had at the time of purchase, but it is also actually collecting revenue from them. WhatsApp is a real company with real monetization strategies.
Whatsapp makes extremely little revenue right now - like it would take Facebook hundreds of years to recuperate what they paid [1]. Even if it doubles in user-base and grows by an order of magnitude (on top of that) through some magic Facebook monetization strategy, it would still take them decades. But if we discount the fact that Facebook mostly paid their own "worthless" (mostly overhyped/overvalued) stock for thi…
Could they, though? Facebook's DNA is information accumulation. As is Google's.
WhatsApp is the antithesis of this, and the likely outcome of this acquisition is the gradual decline of the product as people flock to whatever new, unburdened, anonymous replacement comes along.
But for a while it will boost the stock price because it keeps user engagement seemingly high.
I assume the motivation for pulling this out of the archive is the WhatsApp purchase. However, I don't think this comparison is truly fair. Not only is WhatsApp monthly adding over twice the userbase ICQ had at the time of purchase, but it is also actually collecting revenue from them. WhatsApp is a real company with real monetization strategies.