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WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

forbes.com

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Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#341

Post by intended »

breck wrote: post #320
josephjrobison wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True on the divide but at the same time the world has never been as rich, prosperous, or secure. https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Goalkeepers?WT.mc_id=... Obviously a very ironic source but the others were more political.

Also, the extreme divide between rich and poor has always existed. I’ve never seen a strong data-supported case that it’s any worse today than 100 or 1000 years ago.

It’s slightly ironic to have to state this point on HN; it was once considered the status quo which had to be disrupted.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#342

Post by windows_tips »

mattnewport wrote: post #7

This article seems a little unfair to the WhatsApp founders when it suggests they should have known that any assurances Facebook made to them as part of the acquisition were obviously lies. Sure in 2018 it might be obvious to most of us that nothing Facebook says or promises can be trusted but I don't think that was necessarily as obvious when the acquisition happened and they can be forgiven for thinking they weren'…

[dead]

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#343

Post by stock_toaster »

chubot wrote: post #117

Mark Zuckerberg seems to be the master of putting things in contracts that play out in his favor. The article says they wanted a clause that granted them approval over monetization strategies. So Zuckerberg gave them some version that he knew had no teeth in order to close the acquisition. But he got exactly what he wanted in the end, without any real compromise. This falling out with Acton and Joum seem like just an…

Alternative reading: "Mark and Co. don't think twice about breaking laws or contracts, as long as any fines end up being less than the money they stand to make."

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#345

Post by UpshotKnothole »

vipulved wrote: post #344

Post-acquisition morality is tiring.

The moral pangs suffered by the filthy rich, concerning the means by which they became wealthy is as old as time. Sadly it works. How many people remember Alfred Nobel as the “merchant of death” and how many remember him for the Nobel Prizes? If they were more than trivially bothered they’re always free to divest themselves of their fortunes.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#346

Post by cglace »

charmides wrote: post #311
jonas21 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The indignant tone of the comments here make me laugh. Yeah, the level of indignation and self-righteousness in the comments on HN (and not just in this thread) seems to have gotten worse lately. Maybe time for me to take a break from HN for a bit...

I think it is good that this community praises founders who do the right thing and condemns those who do the wrong thing, even though most of us will never play for such high stakes.

"Wrong" as defined by the hivemind pitchmob.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#347

Post by rstuart4133 »

ac4tw wrote: post #336

I find the article interesting from a cryptographic perspective--specifically have they implemented searchable encryption or such a "encrypted environment" where they able to capture more than meta-data. These quotes specifically: The challenge was WhatsApp’s watertight end-to-end encryption, which stopped both WhatsApp and Facebook from reading messages. While Facebook didn’t plan to break the encryption, Acton says…

They are not that interesting. You have no way to verify if their statements about encryption are true, so you'd be nuts to bet much on assuming they are. WhatsApp being sold to an advertising company is just one fine example of why it's nuts.

In fact given the recent bill's introduced into the Australian parliament, it's irrelevant if they are true. The bill allows the government to demand they produce a version of WhatsApp with a bug that sends a copy of all data receives somewhere, and also allows them to demand they download that app via the automatic security patch mechanism. So unless there is a way to verify what software you have isn't bugged you have to assume even if it isn't now, it could well be in the future.

There are ways out of this mess, but none of them are based on taking someones word for it. Yet the "it's secure because that's what it says on the box" seems to be the most common security model people adopt. It's so clearly wrong I sometimes think I'd be less perplexed if most of the world's population started insisting water wasn't wet.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#348

Post by sixstringtheory »

forgingahead wrote: post #321

If you think about it, there was no other way this could have played out. Acton (and maybe Koum) are privacy idealists, but could never have gone to the next level of philanthropy via massive wealth just by organic Whatsapp growth and revenue. They needed the FB acquisition to supercharge their wallets, needed the pound of flesh to be demanded for the price that was paid in order to revisit their original mission, an…

On one hand I wonder if money should really be apportioned to people who’d sell their user base to FB, like, will they make the best decisions down the road? Another part of me thinks well, better the money in a good person’s hands than FB’s. But you have to assume Acton et al are truly better people than FB, and still the user base is offered up as a sacrifice to that. Doesn’t feel great to me.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#349

Post by charmides »

cglace wrote: post #346
charmides wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is good that this community praises founders who do the right thing and condemns those who do the wrong thing, even though most of us will never play for such high stakes.

"Wrong" as defined by the hivemind pitchmob.

There is no such thing as a hivemind here, just the consensus that it is wrong to sell your company to an entity that puts profit above people's privacy and wellbeing.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#350

Post by domador »

nashashmi wrote: post #289
praseodym wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On iOS the app used to be $0.99 (one-off), which probably made them a couple millions. In 2013 they moved to a subscription model [1] but this was never implemented; I think nobody was ever charged. [1] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/whatsapp-on-ios-now-free

I was an idiot who paid for it. twice (－‸ლ)

If you live in a wealthy country, you probably "lost" more money writing that comment than what you paid for WhatsApp, even paying twice.
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