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Earlier quoted context omitted.
They both seem ridiculous.
no, I can see how Snapchat is unique and fresh. WhatsApp brings nothing new to the table.
Fast forward to today. What'sapp is the dominant messaging application across the world. Carriers hate it but they can't do anything to stop it. Facebook hates it and no matter how much they improve facebook messenger, they keep falling behind.
This represents a massive existential threat to Facebook's business: engagement. To kill their closest competitor for, again, less than 15% of the company, is a rational decision.
Since Viber and What'sapp have both exited the market, I think it's time for someone to build a new messaging app. There's a lot of room in a once incredibly crowded space.
They might as well go ahead and buy WeChat as well.
$16B for something I've never even heard of. I feel like I'm living under a pile of rocks.
Don't feel bad; no one really uses them in the US (except us foreigners to communicate with friends and family abroad). They are the de-facto messaging service in the rest of the world (except for China).
400,000,000 active users [0] 16,000,000,000 USD ---- $40 per user That's an incredible cost. We can assume Facebook is paying for the userbase, the app itself and it's infrastructure would basically run itself. It's less appealing when you realise that there's probably a miniscule fraction of WhatsApp users that don't have a Facebook account. > WhatsApp will remain autonomous and operate independently. You can contin…
Or facebook is trying to trivialize and destroy the startup market.
400,000,000 active users [0] 16,000,000,000 USD ---- $40 per user That's an incredible cost. We can assume Facebook is paying for the userbase, the app itself and it's infrastructure would basically run itself. It's less appealing when you realise that there's probably a miniscule fraction of WhatsApp users that don't have a Facebook account. > WhatsApp will remain autonomous and operate independently. You can contin…
I don't think they're buying it per current user. It's either about paying for future users (granted, triple the user base and it's still a lot) or a game of defense against a potential competitor. They bought the photo company at what seemed an outrageous amount in part to co-opt a competitor. In the end it was profitable. They alter their feed to look more Twitter-like, encouraging people to avoid the competitor. I…
WhatsApp current has 430M monthly active users[0], compared with FaceBook's 1.2B[1] monthly active users. Tripling their userbase would make them the same size FaceBook is itself.
ED: Corrected as child comments pointed out.
[0]: http://blog.whatsapp.com/index.php/2013/12/400-million-stori... [1]: http://investor.fb.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=821954
Even if I apply all my knowledge about valuation, product market fit, historical knowledge and add a glass is half full attitude to this acquisition I can't fathom that evaluation.
Then I think about instagram selling for "only" 1B and it kind of make sense. Kind of...