WhatsApp co-founder accuses Facebook of trading privacy for revenue • Hacker News Board

Re: WhatsApp co-founder accuses Facebook of trading privacy for revenue

#21

Post by tluyben2 » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 7:37 AM UTC

jaabe wrote: post #9

I installed signal, only three of my contacts use it. One is a journalist, one is an artist/designer who does a lot in the crypto space and the last is a fellow enterprise architect. The first two are also active WhatsApp users. I’m as concerned about Facebook as everyone else, but you can’t seem to get around the fact that it’s the modern yellow pages. It’s the only platform,l everyone has, and it’s just incredible…

I did the same thing; I had more luck installing Telegram after that. WhatsApp works well (not really; the 'phone always has to be connected' thing is extremely annoying, but as in; everyone has it) still but we definitely need alternatives. I managed to not use Facebook for years now; I have an account but did not login for years. Unfortunately everyone has Messenger and a subset of them has WhatsApp (in my circles) and a very small subset has Telegram; Signal I really hear nothing about but the offering sounds compelling.

In parts of Asia Wechat is mandatory; I know it's not a popular (in the west) opinion, but I find Wechat the most user friendly out of them all; it always works (even on incredibly bad and dropping connections) and it just has everything under one roof. But for obvious reasons it is also the worst offering. Cannot be avoided in China though.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder accuses Facebook of trading privacy for revenue

#22

Post by kristianc » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 7:46 AM UTC

derefr wrote: post #7

cuddlecake wrote: post #3

I just want to say, if I were in his position, I would also trade my company for sweet millions of dollars. But at least I would not constantly call out the people I sold it to, as if my words had any meaning at that point. Also, it's frustrating to me, to see how it's seemingly impossible to care about the users AND have enough users bringing in revenue at the same time so that you are never in a position where big…

I see nothing hypocritical about good people taking payment from evil people. “Payment” means that the resources of the payer go down, and the resources of the payee go up. Now Facebook have less money that they can use to influence the world in stupid/evil ways, and the WhatsApp founders have more money they can use to influence the world in good ways. And, in exchange, since Facebook now owns the service of WhatsAp…

Facebook uses WhatsApp’s social graph. They may not monitor the content of your messages but they do monitor who you’re talking to.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder accuses Facebook of trading privacy for revenue

#23

Post by laurynas-s » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 7:47 AM UTC

With the proposed 1$/yr/user it is going to take around 19 years to become profitable (with 1bn paid users). Facebook obviously wants a return earlier.

The founder did take those billions, so not sure what he was expecting to happen, ads looks like the only business model to turn profit quickly in this sort of business.

Besides, there are so many people using WhatsApp in developing countries that wouldn't pay if they can get something similar for free and competition in chat apps is big.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder accuses Facebook of trading privacy for revenue

#24

Post by on_and_off » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 7:48 AM UTC

jaabe wrote: post #9

I installed signal, only three of my contacts use it. One is a journalist, one is an artist/designer who does a lot in the crypto space and the last is a fellow enterprise architect. The first two are also active WhatsApp users. I’m as concerned about Facebook as everyone else, but you can’t seem to get around the fact that it’s the modern yellow pages. It’s the only platform,l everyone has, and it’s just incredible…

I tried Signal but I was disappointed by its UX.

It is not horrible, but a bit below the other messaging apps I have been using.

Which is an issue : hard to push my non techies relatives to move to something that they will find harder to use.

I have one contact on Signal btw.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder accuses Facebook of trading privacy for revenue

#25

Post by andromedavision » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 7:50 AM UTC

cuddlecake wrote: post #3

I just want to say, if I were in his position, I would also trade my company for sweet millions of dollars. But at least I would not constantly call out the people I sold it to, as if my words had any meaning at that point. Also, it's frustrating to me, to see how it's seemingly impossible to care about the users AND have enough users bringing in revenue at the same time so that you are never in a position where big…

> I had 50 employees, and I had to think about them and the money they would make from this sale.

You know if you just scale up the numbers above, Mark could justify what he's doing the same way Acton justifies his actions yet somehow Acton thinks there's a difference. You just have to laugh at that.

Sorry, but I think it just sounds unintelligent.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder accuses Facebook of trading privacy for revenue

#26

Post by bleriot » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 7:52 AM UTC

rock_hard wrote: post #2

The people who take money just to then talk shit about the people whom their got their money from...that’s really the lowest class of human being. I mean would you want to work with such person?

I’d think that the person who abuses customer privacy would be much lower class than that. I’d much rather work with someone like the WhatsApp founders than a Zuckerberg.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder accuses Facebook of trading privacy for revenue

#27

Post by imgabe » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 7:52 AM UTC

cuddlecake wrote: post #3

I just want to say, if I were in his position, I would also trade my company for sweet millions of dollars. But at least I would not constantly call out the people I sold it to, as if my words had any meaning at that point. Also, it's frustrating to me, to see how it's seemingly impossible to care about the users AND have enough users bringing in revenue at the same time so that you are never in a position where big…

It mentioned in the article that it wasn't solely his choice to sell. Turning down a $16 billion exit is not something you could easily justify to investors and he probably would have been sued if he had.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder accuses Facebook of trading privacy for revenue

#28

Post by mirimir » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 7:53 AM UTC

cuddlecake wrote: post #3

I just want to say, if I were in his position, I would also trade my company for sweet millions of dollars. But at least I would not constantly call out the people I sold it to, as if my words had any meaning at that point. Also, it's frustrating to me, to see how it's seemingly impossible to care about the users AND have enough users bringing in revenue at the same time so that you are never in a position where big…

Maybe Facebook assured him that they wouldn't destroy its privacy. And maybe he believed them.

Or maybe he realized that the design was fscked. And so figured that he'd take the money, and do it right.

Edit: It seems that he had no choice, as imgabe notes.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder accuses Facebook of trading privacy for revenue

#29

Post by akvadrako » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 7:54 AM UTC

on_and_off wrote: post #24

jaabe wrote: post #9

I installed signal, only three of my contacts use it. One is a journalist, one is an artist/designer who does a lot in the crypto space and the last is a fellow enterprise architect. The first two are also active WhatsApp users. I’m as concerned about Facebook as everyone else, but you can’t seem to get around the fact that it’s the modern yellow pages. It’s the only platform,l everyone has, and it’s just incredible…

I tried Signal but I was disappointed by its UX. It is not horrible, but a bit below the other messaging apps I have been using. Which is an issue : hard to push my non techies relatives to move to something that they will find harder to use. I have one contact on Signal btw.

The UX problem could be solved if there was enough users to make it worth the trouble.

Personally, I only use Signal regularly, so I've convinced most of my friends to use it too. But only for talking to me I suspect.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder accuses Facebook of trading privacy for revenue

#30

Post by mirimir » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 7:54 AM UTC

imgabe wrote: post #27

cuddlecake wrote: post #3

I just want to say, if I were in his position, I would also trade my company for sweet millions of dollars. But at least I would not constantly call out the people I sold it to, as if my words had any meaning at that point. Also, it's frustrating to me, to see how it's seemingly impossible to care about the users AND have enough users bringing in revenue at the same time so that you are never in a position where big…

It mentioned in the article that it wasn't solely his choice to sell. Turning down a $16 billion exit is not something you could easily justify to investors and he probably would have been sued if he had.

Ah. Well that's it, right there.