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WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

nytimes.com

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Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#111

Post by UnreachableCode »

carlosjobim wrote: post #65
mrtksn wrote: post #8

Does anybody have stats on how many people are O.K. paying for their core services, i.e. how many people pay for paid personal e-mail services? I just don't want to believe that our services have to be paid for through proxy by giving huge cut to 3rd parties. The quality goes down both as UX and as core content, our attention span is destroyed, our privacy is violated and our political power is being stolen as conten…

Most people go absolutely mentally deranged by a simple magical incantation. The powerful incantation or spell consists of only one word: "Free". That word will make people loose their mind and their soul. It will make people accept anything and everything that they would never otherwise accept. They will line up for hours, they will accept hostile and toxic messages being screamed into their faces, they will humilia…

But Signal is free. And ad-free

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#112

Post by Workaccount2 »

carlosjobim wrote: post #108
paxys wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of them are based on the traditional media production model. The companies were all well established in the industry (minus Netflix) and the only change was to go from broadcast/cable/theater to streaming. YouTube pioneered user generated videos and independent content creators. Its only competitor is probably Twitch, but that itself is owned by Amazon and losing a ton of money.

All of them have the technical infrastructure to host user uploaded videos, so it's not impossible to compete with YouTube.

No one does video even remotely close to the scale YT does it. YT has by far the deepest market penetration (close to 3 billion monthly users), and has by far the most hosted content, and critically, youtube adds over a half-million hours of video a day.

Essentially, youtube adds more video every single day than the entirety of every other streaming service offers combined.

Youtube is in it's own category, and it's unsurprising no else wants to touch it.

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#113

Post by benhurmarcel »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #48
mrtksn wrote: post #8

Does anybody have stats on how many people are O.K. paying for their core services, i.e. how many people pay for paid personal e-mail services? I just don't want to believe that our services have to be paid for through proxy by giving huge cut to 3rd parties. The quality goes down both as UX and as core content, our attention span is destroyed, our privacy is violated and our political power is being stolen as conten…

I can say from experience and from others who have been in this position (not email, but general services); its around 1-2% of people. Nebula, the answer to the tyranny of Youtube (who works for advertisers), has a I could write pages about this, but I wish I could violently shake all the children (many who are now in their 40's) that so deeply feel entitled to free content on the internet, and scream "If you are not…

I pay for Nebula and still use Youtube a ton. Nebula is nice but it doesn’t have all channels I watch.

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#114

Post by carlosjobim »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #112
carlosjobim wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of them have the technical infrastructure to host user uploaded videos, so it's not impossible to compete with YouTube.

No one does video even remotely close to the scale YT does it. YT has by far the deepest market penetration (close to 3 billion monthly users), and has by far the most hosted content, and critically, youtube adds over a half-million hours of video a day. Essentially, youtube adds more video every single day than the entirety of every other streaming service offers combined. Youtube is in it's own category, and it's u…

Counted in number of hours watched, I'm pretty sure that Netflix, cable TV and satellite TV, can compete with YouTube.

But everybody has to start somewhere. Would it be impossible for Netflix to start adding for example 100 000 hours of user generated video per day?

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#115

Post by dakial1 »

AlecSchueler wrote: post #17
leokennis wrote: post #7

At least in The Netherlands, WhatsApp could show a 60 second unskippable modal ad video on every launch, and still get away with it due to network effects. If you’re not on WhatsApp, no updates or news from your kids school, your sports team, your family, your car dealership etc. for you.

Signal seems to be booming right now in the Netherlands. I've been using it for years and never managed to grow my contact list beyond single digits, being a few friends in tech and a few who were very privacy conscious. All of those people were also available on WhatsApp and we'd often forget and message one another there. But since January the trust in Meta has not only plummeted but it's become a mainstream enough…

Something seems to have happened in NL in March that generated some demand for it, but it seems to have vanished now:

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=NL&q=%2Fm%2F012...

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#116

Post by dakial1 »

robertlagrant wrote: post #42

> When Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014, the messaging app had a clear focus. No ads, no games and no gimmicks. This sort of analysis is very surface-level I think. My impression is WhatsApp offered that by running on VC money and had no plan to run an actual business. That's not a question of focus. It's an unsustainable, please monetise me later land grab.

https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/19/whatsapp-will-monetize-lat...

Zuck Says Ads Aren’t The Way To Monetize Messaging, WhatsApp Will Prioritize Growth Not Subscriptions

"Monetization was the big topic on today’s analyst call after Facebook announced it acquired WhatsApp for a jaw-dropping total of $19 billion. That’s $4 billion in cash and $12 billion in stock, and it reserved $3 billion in restricted stock units to retain the startup’s employees. But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, CFO David Ebersman, and WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum all said that won’t be a priority for the next few years. And when the time does come to monetize aggressively, it won’t be through ads"

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#117

Post by AlecSchueler »

dakial1 wrote: post #115
AlecSchueler wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signal seems to be booming right now in the Netherlands. I've been using it for years and never managed to grow my contact list beyond single digits, being a few friends in tech and a few who were very privacy conscious. All of those people were also available on WhatsApp and we'd often forget and message one another there. But since January the trust in Meta has not only plummeted but it's become a mainstream enough…

Something seems to have happened in NL in March that generated some demand for it, but it seems to have vanished now: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=NL&q=%2Fm%2F012...

Your link shows a peak at the time you mention but the interest in subsequent months has been around 4 times higher than it was prior to the inauguration, so it seems inaccurate or even misleading to say that demand has "vanished."

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#118

Post by carlosjobim »

UnreachableCode wrote: post #111
carlosjobim wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people go absolutely mentally deranged by a simple magical incantation. The powerful incantation or spell consists of only one word: "Free". That word will make people loose their mind and their soul. It will make people accept anything and everything that they would never otherwise accept. They will line up for hours, they will accept hostile and toxic messages being screamed into their faces, they will humilia…

But Signal is free. And ad-free

Sure, it's a rare case of a project which is sponsored and paid for by a billionaire. I wish there were more such projects, but you can't base an economy on charity from billionaires.

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#120

Post by Kwpolska »

timeon wrote: post #77
perks_12 wrote: post #35

WhatsApp has S-tier status here in Germany. If I had access to a proper API I would pay them per message, without them needing to make their UX worse. If anything, if I had to pay per message, I'd be incentivized not to send too many messages, keeping the distractions for the user at a minimum.

> If anything, if I had to pay per message, I'd be incentivized not to send too many messages Sounds like SMS.

Except not limited to 160 characters (70 if you want Unicode) and with rich media capabilities.
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