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Why we don't sell ads (2012)

blog.whatsapp.com

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Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#71

Post by LukeB_UK »

malanj wrote: post #20

The whole WhatsApp acquisition touches on some of the same personal nerves that Google's acquisition of EtherPad did. It was a really great product that I used daily. At the time Google had big plans for their Wave product, and the entire deal seemed to make sense. Fast forward a few months and Wave is a dud and EtherPad is no more. I'm not saying that WhatsApp won't be useful to Facebook, but I do think that the phi…

Etherpad is now an open source product. In fact, it is still being developed, and is currently being rewritten in JavaScript to run on Node.

Wave as a product no longer exists, however a lot of the technology that Google used has been merged into other products such as Google docs.

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#72

Post by mcintyre1994 »

rdtsc wrote: post #46
awda wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$500M/yr in raw revenue? How do you grow from there? Lower costs? Grow your revenue? Half a billion is getting close to max adoption. Do you up your prices?

I'll stick with just getting $500M/yr. That is more than most start-ups will ever make. Once I get there I can solve other problems as they come up. Would that be a reasonable approach?

Elsewhere in this thread someone mentioned Whatsapp have $58M of funding, so I doubt it - that'd probably be seen as a huge failure..somewhat amusingly. Let's say them investors want their 10X within a few years so you need to pay them over a year's revenue over a few years with no real growth there - you're paying a lot and they'd probably not agree.

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#73

Post by dirkc »

LukeB_UK wrote: post #71
malanj wrote: post #20

The whole WhatsApp acquisition touches on some of the same personal nerves that Google's acquisition of EtherPad did. It was a really great product that I used daily. At the time Google had big plans for their Wave product, and the entire deal seemed to make sense. Fast forward a few months and Wave is a dud and EtherPad is no more. I'm not saying that WhatsApp won't be useful to Facebook, but I do think that the phi…

Etherpad is now an open source product. In fact, it is still being developed, and is currently being rewritten in JavaScript to run on Node. Wave as a product no longer exists, however a lot of the technology that Google used has been merged into other products such as Google docs.

The project lost a lot of momentum after Google acquired the developers working on Etherpad. I think the original codebase got forked as the Etherpad Lite project that is still being developed.

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#74

Post by auxbuss »

duskwuff wrote: post #41
mkr-hn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because low quality sites were the only ones that would run the kind of ads we had back then. Then someone built an ad blocker and forced the industry to rethink its approach.

I think you've got your chronology off. Ad blocking was a response to widespread advertising on web sites, not vice versa! Ad blocking software has only become common in the last five years or so, as web browsers with "extension" support have become widespread. It was very rare before that.

This really isn't so. Ad blocking goes back much further. Here's Ad Muncher v4.7 from 2006: http://ad-muncher.en.softonic.com/ We were blocking ads back in the 1900s.

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#75

Post by PhantomGremlin »

amirmc wrote: post #63
debt wrote: post #47

The more I think about the acquisition the more I wished WhatsApp would've stayed on their own. $500 million a year is great. I wish they would've pulled a Craigslist and become more of a cultural institution than another acquisition; focus more on making chat amazing. I feel like that would've had a larger, net positive effect on the public consciousness. People would see WhatsApp doing it for what's right(don't be…

> "I wish they would've pulled a Craigslist..." EBay owns around 25% of Craigslist.

That's a little misleading. It's not like Craigslist wanted eBay as an investor. An ex-employee sold their stock to EBay.

Craigslist isn't about to change their ways because eBay owns a piece of them.

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#76

Post by cheepin »

netcan wrote: post #44

when advertising is involved you the user are the product How about: If you're work at a startup where the business model is 'get acquired,' you are the product. Incidentally, I don't really agree with either of these statements, at least not in their strong forms. The problem with advertising is usually bad advertising. Ads (especially online ads) are usually annoying in inverse proportion to their value. Spam is on…

I personally don't think WhatsApp's goal was getting acquired. I think they got an offer they couldn't refuse, but I don't think they would have sold to a normal valuation.

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#77

Post by duskwuff »

auxbuss wrote: post #74
duskwuff wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you've got your chronology off. Ad blocking was a response to widespread advertising on web sites, not vice versa! Ad blocking software has only become common in the last five years or so, as web browsers with "extension" support have become widespread. It was very rare before that.

This really isn't so. Ad blocking goes back much further. Here's Ad Muncher v4.7 from 2006: http://ad-muncher.en.softonic.com/ We were blocking ads back in the 1900s.

Internet display advertising dates back to the early 1990s (the first clickable banner ad was in 1993). I can't find any exact information on when ad blockers became widely available, but I suspect it wasn't until at least 2000 or so. I certainly don't remember them being a thing before then.

Most of the early banner ads that have been documented were run by generally reputable advertisers (and on reputable sites), not on the "low quality sites" you're implying. There weren't even very many such sites back in 1993; the Web was a very small place back then.

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#78

Post by gabriel34 »

gabriel34 wrote: post #48

So, I uninstalled whatsapp a bit before the acquisition and have been wondering if they sold my past messages along with their company; I really hope that is not the case. I know draconian EULAs ToCs and "Privacy" Policies are all legal, but I trusted them and prefer to give Facebook as little info as possible.

a reply to myself and to future readers from whatsapp: http://blog.whatsapp.com/529/Setting-the-record-straight
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